Santa Monica Fire Adds Game-Changing Software For Emergencies

SANTA MONICA, CA — After a challenging 2020, Santa Monica Fire Department is stepping up their data-collection and emergency responses with new game-changing incident management and response software.

Tablet Command is used by hundreds of fire departments and thousands of first responders in the U.S. and Canada. Now, Santa Monica firefighters are using it, too.

The company was founded by Bay Area firefighters Andy Bozzo and Will Pigeon after two line-of-duty deaths in their department.

The tragedy highlighted a problem emergency services around the world experience daily: during the chaos and confusion of the first moments of an emergency, it is very difficult to track the tasks and whereabouts of arriving responders—much of this is still done by pencil and paper.

Between the ongoing pandemic and the many other types of emergency incidents that first responders face, resource demands are at an all-time high. It's what prompted Santa Monica first responders to start using the iPad software.

Santa Monica Fire Department's Deputy Chief Tom Clemo told Patch how this is changing the department during the health emergency and continuing to help save lives.

"It has been the most challenging point in all of our careers, regardless of where you are in that career trajectory, whether it's administrative or folks that are directly on the floor," Clemo told Patch. "But, our members are doing really well. They're still out there every day delivering the service despite the very challenging conditions."

A lot has changed over the past year, he said.

"Truly, the front line folks that are out there, have adapted really well to the additional PPE that we have to put on, procedures we put in place to minimize exposure, tracking of COVID patients, testing that we've done, quarantines, and things that folks have had to go through," Clemo said.

SMFD staff has continued to respond to emergencies, all while trying to stay healthy and safe.

"Some of our folks actually getting COVID and living through that and trying to manage their families," Clemo said. "Not just being sick, but we have a lot of younger firefighters with young families, and that just compounds the challenge at home, too."

That wasn't the only challenge though, he added.

"You throw on top of it civil unrest that took all of our attention for a solid week, it was all hands on deck," Clemo said. "We opened a brand new fire station in July, which was another huge focus, and we had a record year of being deployed to wildfires. We had people out from early July until Halloween this year. I'm glad it's over, really."

"Our fire incident rates, specific to structure fires, is about where it's normally been," Clemo added. "LA City's has been a career year for them. The large fires that they've had have been pretty spectacular. They've had a lot of them, recently just here in Venice."

With a year like 2020, Clemo is confident the new technology will continue helping the team.

"It's been working great," he said. "It started about three years ago when the department put together a strategic plan focused on technology, Clemo said. They started looking at workflow and how to move from paper to computer systems."

"I had been involved with Tablet Command for several years," he said.

SMFD decided to build out a software system to help the department track incidents.

"The early creators of Tablet Command and I spent a lot of time trying to think about what would ideal incident management software look like for people," he said. "Then, they took it to the next level."

The features keep improving.

"I wanted a simple, easy to use, drag and drop, easy to train software, that in the heat of the moment, our incident commanders could use to track all the units that are coming in so quickly electronically," Clemo said. "In the past, that was someone listening to the radio and writing it down on a form that we have."

"We still do that, just out of habit," Clemo said. "But we also track it electronically because not only does a person writing see what they're doing, but when you track electronically, all of the iPads, no matter where they are, are seeing the same thing: Where the units are, where they're placed on the incident, what their assignment is and who was assigned to that unit."

The department has added in its mutual aid partners in the area, he said. When those units are assigned to the call it's also assigned to the tablet.

"When they come to our incident, we're responsible for taking care of them, keeping an eye on them, and tracking them, just as if we were to go to their incident," Clemo said.

In a separate program, they can track data, what types of calls, when and where, any spikes. It helps keep a record for incident reports, too. And on a large incident with multiple units assigned, different divisions, and supervisors, it's all tracked in Tablet Command.

"And now I've probably got one of the best records of what really happened on that incident," Clemo.

Tablet Command helps to track staff, which changes each day and throughout the day.

"If I want to know if firefighter one on engine one hits his emergency button on his radio, and I see him pop up, and it's that individual, I can look at that unit and say that is firefighter Jones," Clemo described.

They now track to the individuals responding at incidents, which can help if a firefighter is in trouble or needs any help, he said.

Tablet Command is also a mobile data response software, with separate data used to track when they're en route to an incident. This next phase of the new software will integrate it all and allows firefighters to track all of the response time data and details about what happens during a fire.

They also have pre-incident plans and maps of all the buildings in Santa Monica, where the exits are located, where the keys to enter the building are, door and gate codes, plus a Google Earth high resolution and 360-degree street view shot. Firefighters can also add icons that show where the gas or electrical shutoff is, and where roof access might be.

"Are there bars on the windows, are there bars on the doors? Any of that kind of thing is already presented to them," Clemo said.

"It's a new software that pulls every public record and given address and presents it in a visual format to that officer, that chief officer responding to that call," Clemo said.

It's taken time to develop the system, but it's worth it, he added.

"We don't get to this place without a lot of teamwork," he said.

The information services department at SMFD has supported the plan and helped the department to build the new response tablet.

"A big shout out to our ISD team that helped us get to this place and their continued support of this technology," Clemo said.

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