NYC lags behind in firefighter equipment

If Rudy Giuliani wants to mend fences with New York firefighters, perhaps he should promise as president to fix this problem: According to the New York Sun, New York City is lacking some of the most fundamental modern firefighting tools. “We have our technology priorities off-base,” said Captain Peter Gormen. “We spend millions on GPS when we have more basic needs on dispatch,” such as pre-planning software that permits rescuers to see building floor plans before rushing in to an inferno. As it stands now, rescuers heading off to a fire receive only a print-out from the department’s Critical Information Dispatch System (CIDS). These, however, are extremely limited, offering only as much data as has been collected from previous fires that can fit within 160 characters of space. “It’s like the computer system your parents bought in 1973,” said one critic. “They actually have to truncate words so they can cram in critical information.”

Some changes are being made. The NYFD is currently trying to augment the CIDS system with electronic control boards, which would assist battalion chiefs on the scene oragznize tactical plans, but these are still in the pilot stage and it is not known when they will see widespread use. Moreover, say critics, the reliance on data from previous fires (as well as various fire inspections) means the NYPD often lacks critical information. “There should be a division of prevention that inspects buildings, draws diagrams, and digitizes them,” said Vincent Dunn of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign. “Mapping a building is right out of the handbook.” New York City officials say they are working on such a scheme, one modeled after a Chicago regulation that requires large commercial buildings to submit floor plans and a “life safety data sheet” to the fire department, including the building population and the location of hadicapped workers. Like the control boards, however, this also remains in the planning stages, with no set start date.