A new app is helping fire crews get to the scene faster.
Smithers Fire Department chief, Keith Stecko says the department has started using the Active911 app which relays information in an emergency to all crew members.
He says the app tells the department who is responding and instantly provides maps, hydrant locations and other information to all the trucks via iPads and to the volunteers through their smart phones.
“We have been able to overlay our entire hydrant location within the town of Smithers. So that allows us to not have hard copy manuals, maps and those sorts of things. We instantly know where they are so that we can stage our vehicles in a much quicker fashion.”
He says before firefighters would have to look at hydrant maps and figure out on scene where to set up.
“It has absolutely changed the landscape of how we respond, how we actually stage at the scene and how we manage the emergency.”
He says the department still uses the old paper methods as a backup just in case the new technology was to crash.