Our Goal
The officers and fire fighters of the Surrey Fire Service are committed to the concept of ‘Safety Through Knowledge’. As technology becomes part of our everyday lives, knowledge of how to deal with new products and materials is more essential than ever.
The safety of our members is greatly enhanced through the use of Pre-Incident Plans. The location of potential hazards such as mantraps, toxic materials, and engineered trusses are indicated on site plans.
Fire suppression efforts are also made more effective through Pre Plans. The locations of all key objects are also shown on the plans, such as hydrant location, main electrical shut-off, sprinkler room and isolation valves, etc.
Purpose
Those members of the Surrey Fire Service who are committed to participating in the development of Pre-Incident Plans and Response Maps strive to present responding officers and their crews with essential information.
Time and life-saving information is provided close at hand on laptops in the responding vehicles, from response maps to floor plans highlighting hazardous materials or other dangers.
History
Pre-Incident Plans began as hand drawings placed in three-ring binders. In the years since, they have undergone many changes. Today, plans are distributed on rewritable compact discs and memory sticks in digital format for use on apparatus-mounted laptop computers.
1984 – First hand drawn plans
1990 – Computer Aided Dispatch introduced to the Surrey Fire Department. Plans are hand-drawn in standardized templates with hazards indicated with rubber stamps in coloured ink.
1992 – Pre Incident Plan symbols and first complete plan drawn on a computer.
1993 – First computer arrives (386SX).
1994 – Second computer arrives, along with an 18 x 24 inch digitizer and a colour dot matrix printer (dot matrix printer replaced by inkjet after an ‘all night’ print job melts the print head).
1995 – ‘Pre Fire Plan’ office is created. Third computer arrives, along with 24 x 36 digitizer (large enough for full size blueprints).
1997 – Response Maps created and verified by on-duty crews (110 copies required for map printed each ).
1998 – Entire Suppression division trained in the use of Pre Fire Plans. Pre Fire Plan office moved into renovated expansion to Hall 18. Wall maps generated from Response Maps for each fire hall.
1999 – 1100 plans completed (hard copy). ’Pre Fire Plans’ changed to ‘Pre-Incident Plans’ to reflect increasing versatility of plans and increased scope of fire department responsibility. One year Human Resource Development plan implemented to produce plans and train HRDC candidates. First laptop computer installed in Battalion Chief’s vehicle with Response Maps and 275 Pre-Incident Plans in indexed Portable Document Format.
2000 – 400 completed Pre-Incident Plans. Emergency Response Guide included with navigational links. HRDC program concludes, resulting in 800 PIPs requiring verification.
2001 – 950 completed plans. Six laptop computers now in service. Our Website, www.preincidentplans.com is established.
2002 – Access database refined and entire Pre-Incident Plan production process reviewed. All 1500 plans converted to digital format. Drawing templates and symbol library updated and distributed.
2003 – All first line pumps now have laptops installed, department wide training conducted to update all crews on changes and new features. Operational Guidelines now available on the laptops. 1700 plans and counting.
2012 – Transition to a client based program whereby PIP’s will be a requirement for developers to complete for new building projects.
Future – First line engines will be have PIP’s automatically loaded via the internet for immediate updating.
Method
Plans are obtained from City Hall for buildings located within the city in the form of blueprints. These plans are digitized, optimized for Fire Department purposes, reformatted, checked, printed and distributed to each Fire Department apparatus in service, either in digital or hard copy form.
We are starting to get access to TIFF files on the city server, and are working on having the architects supplying us with Pre Incident Plans to our standard, in digital form.
Response Maps are also checked by on-duty crews. Changes are processed, and both wall maps and response maps are kept up-to-date through regular distribution.
Click here to download PIP Site plan
Check out the PIP web site www.preincidentplans.com
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