Friday, July 3, 2015

Busy weekend looms

Thursday LPD hit 418 police dispatches, making it one of the busiest days of the year thus far. The Fourth of July is huge every year, but with the holiday landing on a weekend, it could be massive. LF&R had a brutal Forth of July last year with 87 runs total, but an incredible dump started around 10:00 PM: 26 incidents in two hours, including four working fires. It continued well into the wee hours of July 5th.

We're fielding extra fire & rescue assets this year, after sucking wind in 2014. That's probably a guarantee things will be relatively calm; sort of like washing your car on Saturday morning inevitably brings on an afternoon thundershower, while leaving it dirty guarantees sunshine.

LF&R's GIS analyst Phil Dush and Battalion Chief Eric Jones, spun up a web mapping application to provide personnel with an interactive event management tool. It's a nice upgrade from last year's inaugural version. Visualizing the Incident Action Plan on a map is very useful, and this will look great on the big screen in the command post.


Matter of preference, but the application can also be viewed within the framework of FireView Dashboard. One of the neat features of these web mapping applications is that you can click on any of the icons or symbols to bring up the details. It's a far cry from the flip chart taped on the wall and plastered with Post-It notes. Moreover, staff can view it on any Intranet-connected device: desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone.


3 comments:

Steve said...

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

I don't mind the booms, I and enjoy the sight of the fireworks (though I would never spend my own money on them). I just wish people would respect others and keep their use of fireworks legally within the time frame allowed, pick up their trash, stay out of the street, and be careful.

Tom Casady said...

Predictably, the extra preparation appears in hindsight to be a bit of overkill. Independence Day proved relatively uneventful compared to last year--although still plenty busy. Props to all the police officers and firefighters who made the day safe for everyone else.

Steve said...

I thought about calling police about my neighbors on the 4th. I didn't mind so much that they had a huge gathering, played loud music, and shot fireworks off in the street; what bothered me was they way the guests parked their cars. They were blocking driveways, including my own, sticking out into the intersections, blocking fire hydrants, etc. I figured police would be so busy everyone might be gone by the time they showed up.

On another subject, is a pellet gun (or BB gun) considered a firearm by the city? I noticed on my crime alerts that during a traffic stop near my home, a pellet gun was hidden under the car seat. Is that a crime? The city code, as I read it, describes a "firearm" as a gun that uses an explosive to propel a projectile. A pellet or BB gun, does not. I do see another section that makes it illegal to carry a toy gun that discharges a projectile; does this include pellet or BB guns? It seems ludicrous to me that real guns can be carried legally, but toy guns and/or pellet or BB guns cannot, if that is the case. I have heard that people have been charged with firing a gun in the city limits for shooting a pellet gun. How can that be? Could you explain?