Fire Department Completes 200 Pre-Plans in Three Weeks
- Population: 24,000
- Tyler Client Since: 2004
- Tyler Products/Solutions: Enterprise CAD, Enterprise Fire Mobile, MSP Fire Records, FlowMSP, MSP Corrections, Emergency Networking
- Profile: Located 60 miles south of Chicago, the city of Kankakee, Illinois, is named after a variant pronunciation of the Native American Potawatomi tribe’s name for the nearby river. Nowadays, the city is known for agricultural trade and manufacturing and boasts two homes designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Kankakee County law enforcement, fire, and corrections agencies use Tyler’s Enterprise Public Safety suite of solutions.
Challenge
The Kankakee, Illinois, fire department's periodic Insurance Services Office (ISO) review was approaching. The department had already achieved an outstanding ISO Class 2 rating, but to keep their community safe, reduce local home insurance rates, and make the area more attractive to local businesses, Kankakee Fire Chief Damon Schuldt and Deputy Chief Jeff Bruno had their sights set on the top-tier ISO Class 1 rating for the next review.
“Our goal wasn’t just to decrease our ISO rating, but to become leaders in Illinois in pre-planning and safety for our department and community,” Kankakee Fire Chief Damon Schuldt said. “Our firefighters need easy access to data to make the best decisions quickly.”
To achieve top marks, annual pre-plans must be completed for all commercial buildings in the area. Because manual pre-plans can take up to several hours to complete, most departments pre-plan a building every 3-5 years.
“While we lacked the internal resources to complete pre-plans efficiently, we were determined to not just check the box here for ISO,” Schuldt said. “We needed a software that would integrate into our daily routines effectively and would be used by everyone quickly.”
Solution
To significantly reduce the time and resources needed to complete pre-plans, Kankakee Fire Department selected FlowMSP’s pre-plan technology — a Tyler partner.
According to FlowMSP Implementation Manager Dana Jennings, once the contract was signed, the department wasted no time getting to work. “I visited the team on day of the contract, and within minutes of activating the software, the team began pre-planning their first structure,” Jennings said.
To complete each pre-plan, crews followed FlowMSP’s four-step process:
- Take photos of the structure using FlowMSP-equipped smartphones
- Annotate the photos
- Use the drop-down menu to add structural information, like roof type and occupancy information
- Finally, add standard National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) icons for quick hazard identification
The software is intuitive, agile, and developing constantly. It thinks like a firefighter.
Deputy Chief Jeff Bruno
Kankakee Fire Department, Illinois
Results
Kankakee staff completed more than 200 pre-plans in just three weeks. Most pre-plans were completed in less than six minutes.
“The software is intuitive, agile, and developing constantly,” Kankakee Deputy Chief Jeff Bruno said. “It thinks like a firefighter.”
Additionally, with FlowMSP, Kankakee firefighters can view pre-plans en route to a call, reducing radio chatter and improving safety, situational awareness, emergency response times, and decision-making capabilities.
With these improvements to the department’s pre-planning processes, the Kankakee Fire Department was awarded an ISO Class 1 rating — something only around 1% of fire departments are able to achieve — effectively serving their community with top-tier fire service and home insurance rates.
Looking to improve your pre-planning process or ISO ratings? Visit FlowMSP’s website to learn more about this solution, and check out Tyler’s suite of Fire & EMS solutions for more tools that can help crews arrive safer and better prepared.