Firefighters get an app and you might be safer

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The Eunice Fire Department recently acquired an application that probably makes us a bit safer.
Fire Chief Mike Arnold said, “Nothing is foolproof, but this is pretty good. I’m impressed.”
The application is Active 911 and firefighters here have been working with it since April.
Active 911 works on cell phones, tablets and computers.
When a call comes into 911, an email goes to Active 911 which alerts firefighters. The alert tells them what the call is about, such as medical or fire, and gives the fastest route to the location.
The app shows everybody who is looking at the call, he said.
“I can actually see people congregating toward that area,” he said.
Another plus is the app shows the location of fire hydrants, which are color-coded as to type.
Arnold said there about 360 hydrants in Eunice and he is adding hydrants outside the city. Seven were located on the LSUE campus and added to Active 911.
Lawco supplied a map of the fire hydrant locations and Arnold is getting with other water districts to map hydrant locations.
The app cost $12.50 a year for each device. So far 19 employees, a computer in dispatch, five iPads and six or eight volunteers are equipped with the app.
Arnold said the app provides a tone faster than his pager. In addition, the detail it provides helps him determine when he is going on a call.
“In our line of work, the faster we get there the better,” he said.