Firefighters do a LOT. They fight fires; they cut people out of mangled cars after a wreck; they perform high-angle and ice-water rescues; they respond to medical emergencies; and, they train and they train and they train to do all that safely. They host bingo games, raffles, 50/50 draws, community barbeques, and anything else that will help them to keep the doors of their fire department open. They perform a plethora of community outreach activities that include fire safety and prevention. They stand ready in every extreme weather event, every natural disaster. They ensure community fire departments are always operating at the highest levels of readiness, keeping us safe and our home insurance as low as possible. They further support their communities by flooding local rinks, taking Santa Claus for a fire truck ride through the neighbourhood every Christmas, hosting fire department tours, and supporting community causes.
It sounds remarkable, doesn’t it? The contributions of a community fire department make a hefty package. Tracking the time and activities of firefighters, then, is critical to understand the true value of the service they provide.
One of the best features of the FireQ fire department software is the ability to easily track firefighter and fire department activities and hours. FireQ tracks incident response, training, and all other types of fire department activities, giving both the firefighter and the Fire Chief an accurate tally of the hours dedicated and how they were spent.
Consider a small community fire department in eastern Canada. It is a small department with fewer than 20 members, protecting a community of approximately 3000 people. In the first six months of 2020, this department responded to more than 44 incidents, volunteering more than 500 man-hours in the process. These firefighters also dedicated more than 220 hours of training time before Covid restrictions in March changed their routine and the ability to train at the fire station.
More than tracking fire department activities, FireQ can also track the hours and activities of the firefighters that serve in the department. The FireQ Member Statistics feature provides a detailed record of how many hours are served by each firefighter and what types of activities made up those hours.
This is an overview report of one of the firefighters from that small eastern Canada fire department. This particular firefighter attended more than half of the emergency incidents and almost all of the trainings, accumulating more than 60 hours of service to the fire department in the first half of 2020. The 60+ hours represent an average participation rate of 62% for this firefighter.
The Member Statistics feature also gives users a detailed look at each training and emergency incident in which this firefighter participated.
Training
Incidents
The Member Statistics feature can also show users what equipment has been assigned to a firefighter, what service awards have been achieved, clothing size, any certifications that are held, and other activities undertaken in support of the fire department.
Human resource and records management is one part of a growing administrative burden for community fire departments. Records management software designed for fire departments must be affordable and easy to use if it is to useful and available to community departments. The FireQ fire department software, with its Member Statistics feature, provides the community fire department with the tools they need to ease the administrative burden.
