Which Fire Truck should I use?

[RobertFord1]

I am trying to figure out which fire truck we would send in case of a far away emergency. The truck would be chosen so as to minimize the impact on service areas and overall response time. So we kind of want to create a reverse service area / closest facility hybrid. This product (CAD Analyst | Strategic Planning for Computer-Aided Dispatch ) is something that would be perfect, but was wondering if we could just use ArcMap instead.

I am using ArcMap 10.3.1 with ArcInfo License

Thanks!

[JoeBorgione]

to minimize the impact on service areas: 
^^^^What does this mean?

I use network analysis to choose the closest unit (quickest drive time) to an incident, but it sounds like you want to incorporate CAD (computer assisted dispatch) functionality into Network analysis.  I bet in can be done; how much money do you have to spend on it?

For example, once Network Analyst returns the closest unit, CAD takes over and figures out what sort of response the call type needs like: engine, ladder, heavy rescue, whatever.

[RobertFord1]

Hi Joe!

We would like to choose a truck that will have the least impact on the service areas and response times of all other fire trucks. We want to leave the smallest hole possible in coverage. Sending truck A would result in a larger service area for truck B and also higher response time because truck B now has to cover truck A's previous area.

I could just use model builder and iterate through every permutation for every fire truck, but that would result in hundreds of maps. The closest unit won't necessarily matter in this case. If fire truck A is closer than fire truck B, but sending truck A results in a larger loss of coverage than sending B, we would rather send B.

Does this make sense? Thank you!

[JoeBorgione]

Yeah it makes sense, but that's what any CAD worth it's salt will do.

[JohnBrockwell]

Extremely complicated scenario you are describing. It's one thing to send the closest unit. However, If you take the closest unit you may make your overall service area vulnerable to another response. We have used this a good bit in our urban analysis. I think you need to plot all your incidents and perform location allocation, service area, and closest facility. You pair these analyses to determine appropriate response. It's also a challenge to find a reliable routable network dataset.

I'd be interested in hearing your progress.

[PeterHanna2]

Robert,

You need to add more information here.  Do you only have two stations?  If that is the case then the analysis makes no sense because which ever unit you send will pick up the responses of the other unit.  What types of units are we talking about?  Engines (which carry water), trucks (which carry ladders and tools) or some other specialty unit. Finally, what type of call are you sending them on?  Another comment above said that the CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system should pick the units which is true but only if you program it properly.  I liked John Brockwell's comment about all the different types of analysis but with all the variables above, you would have to run several scenarios and determine which one works best.  Finally, is there a Mutual Aid component to this or is this a call in your jurisdiction/PSAP? Mutual Aid will add another bit of complexity to the issue as different jurisdictions do not respond to incidents with the same units/manpower.

I hope this was helpful and I too would love to know how you get on.

Good Luck!!!