By Mike Martinez
Inside Bay Area
TRACY, Calif. — The Tracy Fire Department is moving into the 21st century.
Fire officials are expecting to install laptop computers in every fire engine before the beginning of October that would allow firefighters to get information as quickly as the dispatchers can type it.
Once installed, the console would place the Tracy Fire Department among the first in San Joaquin County to have the equipment, while also becoming the largest fire protection agency using them.
A handful of the terminals, which have touch-screen monitors, have been installed in the command vehicles for the department's division chiefs who use the system to plot the quickest route to an incident, or track the location of other engines, fire officials said.
Division Chief Andrew Kellogg said that, when firefighters are in their engine, they can be notified of emergency calls sooner because they will pop up on the computer screen first.
"We're going to see the call long before we would ever be dispatched for it," Kellogg said. "I think this is state-of-the-art, cutting-edge stuff. Not a lot of fire departments are using it yet. Some are using some aspects of this system, but when you throw everything into one, not many are using it like us."
Kellogg said they are currently developing overlays for the mapping software that will show each city parcel and corresponding addresses, along with the location of fire hydrants throughout Tracy.
The computers are being paid for by American Medical Response's LifeCom Center in Salida, which handles the city's fire dispatching.
"All it's costing the city is the initial outlay for the hardware, about $60,000, and the annual cost for this is the air time on the (cellular) card," Kellogg said. "Everything else is borne through LifeCom. They manage the software and all the updates — everything is done by them. We just tap into it."
The mobile data terminals are the latest in a string of technological advances the Tracy Fire Department has undertaken.
The department is operating on its own dispatching frequency and is about to roll out a second "tactical" channel in the near future.
The department also has been utilizing new software as it develops a standards of coverage survey that is expected to be presented at a meeting in October.
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