By Sarah Schillaci
The Star-Ledger
MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. — No GPS. No high-definition screen. No Facebook access.
Just a no-frills means of saving lives and homes.
That’s the idea behind the Vehicle Data System, a database created over the past year by the Morris Township Fire Department to instantly provide firefighters with crucial information to fight fires at every property in the township.
The system, loaded onto laptops mounted in fire engines, provides firefighters with directions, cross-streets and the three nearest water sources for every property in the township. If a fire occurs at a property, the firefighters will be able to immediately access characteristics — such as an elevator or sprinkler system — that might affect battling a blaze.
The system, said Fire Chief Craig Goss, gives firefighters a much faster way of finding fires than they had in the past.
“They would look at a map and see where the house is,” Goss said.
The department is collecting data from any households with special needs residents, such as the very old or those with mobility problems.
Those entries provide floor plans of the houses that direct firefighters to the bedroom of the person needing assistance.
For all the information it provides firefighters, the system is relatively low-tech. Created on a database management program by manually entering property information, the system has a bare-bones interface. The computers don’t have internet or network connectivity — if there is an update to the system, Goss must manually upload it to the laptops.
The information has been culled from the township tax database, building files and maps. Including information from bordering municipalities to which Morris Township provides mutual aid, Goss estimates there are about 75,000 entries on the system.
And because the system was created in-house, with all but two of the $4,000 laptops obtained through grants and donations, creating the system has cost taxpayers little.
Ken Farmer, the branch chief for the Leadership and Prevention section of the National Fire Academy, said most fire departments have some form of “pre-plan” for fighting fires and knowing about safety hazards in specific locations.
Often, he said, the pre-plans are written down in notebooks or “based on people’s head knowledge.”
More and more departments are moving toward computerized plans, Farmer said, but he applauded Morris Township’s homemade approach.
“It sounds like they’ve taken it to a new, more positive level,” Farmer said. “They’ve done it at probably a low cost. “xA6; They deserve a feather in their cap.”
The system is the first of its kind in North Jersey, Goss said, and several Morris County towns have expressed interest in learning about it.
Most importantly, it’s working.
Firefighter August Kaufhold utilized the system to get to a house fire this month on Mendham Road.
The 19-year veteran of the department said he originally perceived the system to be just another step he had to do before getting to a fire, but has since come to appreciate to the system.
“It gives us another tool to perform our duties,” Kaufhold said.
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