Mobile Eyes fire program to be implemented soon
The Fort Myers Beach Board of Fire Commissioners swore in new employees, set meeting and workshop dates for 2013 and listened to a presentation about the second phase of a Mobile Eyes program at its monthly meeting last Tuesday.
Three new fire fighters/paramedics were added to the district roster. They included Robert Little, Carlos Miranda and Rafael Suarez. Two new fire prevention specialists, William Genevrino and Reagan Bauman, were also sworn in before the fire commissioners.
The fire board also unanimously approved to keep the 2013 days and time schedule of its meetings and workshops the same as this past year. Meetings will be held at Town Hall on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m., while workshops will be held at Town Hall on the first Tuesday at 10 a.m. Exceptions include the Feb. 19 meeting, which will be held at Fire Station 31, due to a scheduling conflict with Town Council, and the September workshop will be held Sept. 10, due to Labor Day weekend.
The fire commissioners agreed that having consistency to their meeting/workshop schedule was important. But, saving money by holding meetings during the daytime was discussed.
“There is a cost to the district in holding our meetings in the evening. We have to give salary employees comp(ensation) time,” said Fire Board Chairman David Brower.
“I think the reason we are having them at 7 (p.m.) is so that if we did have public input and an audience, they would be able to come after work,” said Commissioner Ted Schindler. “That’s the idea of having our workshops in the morning. People who could not attend at night could attend then.”
Mobile Eyes program
Phase II of the Mobile Eyes program is in effect at the Fort Myers Beach Fire District. The new software is being implemented to give call information to responding fire department resources.
Capt. Ron Martin, the district’s fire marshal, made a presentation to the fire board about how the program works for the first responders on the road. It will enable Beach fire fighters to have better mobile data to respond to incidents in the district. The full implementation of this phase is expected to be available April 1.
“The way the program works is that you can enter any address within our database and search by name,” he said. “This will also interface with our CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system. As the guys are getting dispatched out to calls, this data will automatically be pulled by the TAD, and the information will be at our fingertips.”
Five tabs of information will be available through Mobile Eyes computer program: directions, structural information, hazardous materials, occupant information and occupant contacts.
“Information in the structure tab will give them basic information in the structure where all the fire protection equipment is. It also automatically populates a fire flow to help our fire fighters determine how much water there will be to fight a fire,” said Martin.
He also added the tab will include information if any hazardous materials are stored on site or any fire code violations are outstanding as well as premise, key holder and contact information.
“Probably one of the biggest achievements thus far in the program is the introduction of our pre-plan software drawing program, which will allow us to pre-plan and give our fire fighters knowledge of the building as they arrive,” said Martin showing an aerial map as a visual aid.
According to Martin, Mobile eyes will deal with all structures that are inspectable within the district. Inspectable structures include any occupancy that has three units or more.
The Mobile Eyes program will be fully interchangeable across the south six fire districts that are also on the program.
“This is an invaluable tool, and it will just prove to be more valuable to the district as we progress through,” said Martin.