Case Study: West Vancouver, B.C. Simplifying the Pre-planning Process in a Complex World While Increasing Pre-Planning Efficiency and Effectiveness

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The Fire Department:

WEST VANCOUVER FIRE & RESCUE SERVICES

West Vancouver, British Columbia (member municipality of Metro Vancouver) Population: 42,473* Sq km under department jurisdiction: 87.26 sq km (33.69 sq mi)

* 2016 data. T H E I S S U E

The West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services (WVFRS) has been creating pre-incident plans for nearly a quarter of a century. But despite this wealth of experience, the department’s pre-planning program had serious efficiency problems dating back years.

The WVFRS previously relied on a combination of paper and PDF plans. Each paper plan was hand delivered to every firehouse in the area, with the corresponding PDFs uploaded to a central server via a desktop work station. The PDFs were stored on a city server that synced with the apparatus MDT's each morning at 2 a.m. APX Data spoke with WVFRS's Captain of Fire Prevention – Aaron Clements, to better understand the challenges they face and how implementing APX Data has benefited West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services.

WVFRS's firefighters on the scene and in action Photographer: Chris Christie of Christie Images T H E I S S U E

With new and more complicated building projects constantly going up within its jurisdiction, Clements says, continuing its traditional pre-incident planning program simply wasn’t an option.

“Imagine there’s a new addition on a building,” Clements says. “In that case, you don’t just have to update your pdf, sync to your server, and then sync to your truck. You also have to go to five fire halls and hand deliver the new printouts. Then you need to destroy the old ones. That became very onerous.”

Not only that, but creating each pre-incident plan often took several days – especially with larger buildings with several floors.

West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services quickly realized that the APX software would greatly improve the pre-planning process.

Complex architectural designs, like this one in West Vancouver, can make pre-planning more difficult. THE SOLUTION Now that the WVFRS uses APX CityScape software for its pre-incident planning, Clements says he’s able to create up to five or six pre-plans in a day. "I can now get useful And because of APX’s completely customizable information on five to six mobile forms, he’s able to create pre-plans that suit the needs of his jurisdiction perfectly. properties a day. That's

“On some of these runs, firefighters have less than unheard of – and I a minute before they arrive,” he says. “So if a pre- plan is not clear and concise and only exactly what sometimes forget how they need, fire crews aren’t going to be interested.” incredible it is compared to He says the department was initially attracted to what we used to do.” APX because the data is accessible from any West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services — device, at any time, and in real-time as pre-incident Captain of Fire Prevention: Aaron Clements plans are created. Gone are the days of waiting for the server to sync overnight, and hand delivering paper plans. "Fire Prevention Officers have THE SOLUTION seen incredible improvements “I can take a photo of a business card and the contact info is in productivity in the areas of entered, instead of inputting text," Clements says. "I can lead pre-planning and inspections. someone into an electrical room with virtually no text and a couple of images. If I want to lead someone to a generator, I can Firefighters have experienced add three photos to lead them to the generator – like improved access to current and breadcrumbs." detailed building information, far beyond anything that was "The software also gives me the ability to import PDF versions of the site and floor plans for a building, capture images and possible with legacy pre- enter descriptive text in every field of the form, and most planning and inspection importantly, either quickly create a new pre-plan or update an methods. All around, adopting existing one in real time. Meaning when I'm in the field my device continually syncs with the APX server and crews have APX’s software has been that update, right now." revolutionary for our Department." With APX Data, Clements and the rest of the West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services can spend more time saving lives, and West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services — less time creating pre-plans. At the end of the day, that's Captain of Fire Prevention: Aaron Clements something everyone can get behind. SIMPLIFYING PRE-PLANNING WHILE INCREASING EFFECTIVENESS APX CityScape reduces risk to both citizens and first responders by allowing the fast creation and deployment of image-rich, tactically relevant and easily shareable pre-incident plans.

CityScape also helps simplify your pre-planning process, by making pre-plans completely customizable, responsive, and available for deployment mere seconds after creation.

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