Essential information is now at the fingertips of local firefighters with the recent addition of a half-dozen new tablet computers in frontline vehicles.
100 Mile House Fire-Rescue purchased and installed the six iPads for about $750 each.
The touch-screen devices are expected to greatly reduce paperwork, help crews respond to incidents more efficiently with new mapping technology, improve training capabilities, and help crews share information during a call.
Basically, the new electronic devices modernize the work of the department, says chief Darrell Blades.
“The information [the fire department members] need they used to have to keep in big binders and the crew really didn’t take it with them [on emergency calls]. It’s all going to be here electronically. When they arrive on scene, they’ll be able to snap a quick picture of what they see and that picture can be viewed on all the iPads of the responding vehicles.”
Blades expects a two- to three-month learning curve with the new technology, but says it will help them in the long run.
The department had been looking at installing laptops in its trucks for a few years, but couldn’t justify the cost. Blades cites one laptop model coming in at between $4,000 and $5,000 per unit with installation. As well as being cheaper, he says the iPads are more portable.
“It’s not the greatest computer, but it’s very handy for what we want to do.”
Multiple departments are working together and experimenting with iPads, including fire departments in Williams Lake, Salt Spring Island and Comox, Blades adds.
“We’re all kind of finding different applications, different forms we’re using, and we’re sharing it back and forth and trying to make the job better. So at 2 a.m., the guys aren’t thinking, ‘Ok, what’s the layout of this building and where’s the closest hydrant?’ They’ll have that information at their fingertips.”
