Fire Department Software

Modern Fire Department Software

Having worked with hundreds of volunteer fire departments to determine needs and requirements for modern Fire Department Software, here is some of what we’ve heard so far:

Fire Department Software was originally Fire Records Management Software (Fire RMS) but has grown to include much more:

• Incident Management (export to NFIRS, and NERIS)
• Personnel Management (career and training records)
• Equipment & Asset Management (truck checks, maintenance records, etc.)
• Reporting & Data Analysis
• Mobile Access
• Integrations

For volunteer fire departments this should also include:

• Firefighter self-service portal; annual incident numbers, training numbers, and more.
• Firefighter communications; reducing texts and emails
• Firefighter insights; top responder leader-board, recent incident trends, firefighter anniversaries, and more.

Incident Management

• Track incidents from dispatch to resolution.
• Record detailed incident reports.
• Analyze incident data for trends and improvement.

For volunteer fire departments this should not require volunteer firefighters to learn NFIRS (or NERIS) codes and values because volunteer firefighters don’t need to learn yet another thing.

Personnel Management

• Maintain comprehensive personnel records, including emergency contact information.
• Track member career arcs over time.
• Track certifications and training requirements.

For volunteer fire departments this should also include a simple interface for them to update their personal information, including emergency contact information. Volunteer firefighter should be able to access contact information for other members, especially newcomers, since this keeps contact information up to date, and in one place. Easily available contact information improves collaborations amongst all members.

Equipment & Asset Management

• Inventory apparatus and equipment.
• Schedule maintenance and repairs.
• Track equipment usage and depreciation.

For volunteer fire departments this should be made achievable. No volunteers have spare time for tedious or menial tasks, not on an ongoing basis, so apparatus checks and maintenance should be easy to enter, and management as automated as possible.

Reporting & Analytics

• Generate customizable reports for compliance and analysis.
• Analyze response times and incident outcomes.
• Identify areas for operational improvement.

For volunteer fire departments this should be understood as performed at times for board member meetings or officer meetings, and perhaps for grant applications (e.g. AFG, Assistance for Firefighters Grant) and situations like ISO (Insurance Services Office) evaluation. Accessing the right information and

Most volunteer fire departments need custom reports, perhaps for a stipend or volunteer firefighter award, which is often calculated using a number of department specific metrics on top of incident and event/training attendance. Custom reports are also needed for individual fire department needs, such as water usage tracking for special districts or times of transfer of care, and so on. Custom reports can work with custom fields to satisfy specialized department needs.

Firefighter Mobile Access

• Provide real-time access to critical information in the field.
• Enable incident reporting and updates on mobile devices.

For volunteers, a mobile application is essential to increase engagement amongst even the least technically interested members. Every volunteer who wants to connect can use a simple mobile application on their personal device:

Integrations

• Seamlessly integrate with CAD systems, mapping software (GIS), and other relevant tools.

Firefighter self-service portal

Volunteer firefighters are busy people who deserve access to department information, especially their own information, at their fingertips. A self-service portal allows them to access information as and when they need, from anywhere:

• Annual incident numbers (e.g. if a member has an annual percentage requirement)
• Training numbers (e.g. if a member has fire training, wildland fire training, hazmat training and more requirements)
• Event numbers (e.g. business meetings)

Firefighter communications

• Reducing group texts and email and keeping all the information in one place
• Calendar of upcoming events / training and more
• Self-service portal for numbers, training hours, event hours and more

Firefighter insights

• What incident types are recently trending? ( Perhaps to propose training or equipment requests. )
• Firefighter anniversaries and years of service to respect longevity of service.
• Top responder and top trainer rankings for good-hearted rivalry, and more.

Responserack - Volunteer Fire Department Software

Responserack is volunteer fire department software that was developed with these needs in mind, and continues to create an amazing solution crafted for volunteer fire departments.