Fire Departments Modernize With New Collaboration Tools

Through various resources, the FirstNet Authority provides guidance to fire departments and other emergency responders for the successful implementation of collaboration platforms.

FirstNet advises responders to plan collaboration flows, leverage platform versatility, standardize data sharing and vet — then adopt — collaboration apps. In its Emergency Management Resource Guide, FirstNet stresses the importance of messaging and file-sharing systems to “allow for enhanced collaboration and reduce traditional barriers to situational awareness.” Several fire departments that have followed this guidance share their success stories with StateTech.

All in the Same Room With Modern Collaboration Tools

In Boulder City, the fire department could plainly see the advantages of a robust collaboration platform, inspiring them to figure out how best to unify and streamline communications.

“To get the firefighters and the captains and everyone else together in the same room at the same time is impossible, just due to the differences in their schedules,” Barrone says.

Previously, people would miss meetings, or they’d try to connect using their phones over FaceTime. Now, they simply log in via Webex for nearly the same view and experience as participants who are at the station.

While Cisco’s integrated whiteboard technology works with any number of videoconferencing platforms, BCFD typically holds meetings using Microsoft Teams, Barrone says. The whiteboards feature built-in cameras and AI-driven software that can display individual participants or provide a view of the entire room, and its audio system ensures that sound is optimized for remote and in-person attendees alike.

“I can project images onto the screen during a captain’s meeting or training session, and no matter where you are, it’s like you’re there, one on one,” he explains. “The biggest thing is, it’s an engagement tool — a solution that brings everyone together.”

Collaborative by Nature, Connected Through Technology

As any firefighter can attest, the job isn’t only about responding to emergencies in quick and effective coordination with your crew. There’s also the hustle that happens behind the scenes, and for that, teamwork is similarly critical.

“Fire departments are collaborative by nature,” says Jim Smith, IT manager with Valley Regional Fire Authority in Auburn, Wash. He cites the assistance, or mutual aid, that most departments readily provide to other emergency services organizations in the same area.

“The team-based model is something that extends to every aspect of the firefighting profession,” he says.

At VRFA — the coordinating body for five fire stations that serve about 100,000 citizens south of Seattle — the journey toward modernized communications kicked off in 2022 when the agency’s VoIP system “aged out,” Smith says. It used the opportunity to migrate to Microsoft 365, and soon after, it added a license for Microsoft Teams Phone.

“We’d been using SharePoint on-premises for years, and we knew that with Teams, we would extend its capabilities,” Smith explains. Integrated, the two Microsoft solutions allow users to easily manage SharePoint content and collaborate on files within the Teams environment.

Through Teams, for example, Smith was able to coordinate a software data-mapping effort when the dispatch center used by area fire and police departments adopted a new computer-aided dispatch solution.

“I hosted a SharePoint/Teams space for everyone who was involved in that effort,” he recalls. “We were able to collaborate and look at the same information at the same time and communicate — via instant message or a meeting — very quickly and efficiently.”

Today, VRFA occasionally uses the technology to facilitate firefighter training, but most such sessions are hands-on affairs for practicing techniques such as ladder throwing and forcible entries.

Teams, on the other hand, is deployed regularly for normal communications within the department, “and our battalion chief uses it for meetings with station captains as part of the everyday morning routine,” Smith says.

EXPLORE: New Hampshire makes the case to FirstNet for improved broadband.

Where Everything Works and Collaboration Is Easy

Forest fires are one of the top concerns for firefighters in Washington State, and the same is true for many of those working in the Rocky Mountain high country of Colorado. On the Western Slope, about 130 miles from Denver, it’s up to the team at the Eagle County Emergency Operations Center to coordinate and support fire response and other emergency services in the region.

Whether it’s a wildfire, an avalanche, a gas leak or a missing person, “we use the same tools in the EOC for every response,” says Brandon Williams, innovation and strategy manager for Eagle County government. The county’s Department of Emergency Management runs the EOC, and Williams oversees the technologies the department depends on to communicate internally and with responders in the field.

The department is a “Google shop,” Williams says, “where everybody lives in Chat, everybody’s on Gmail, and everybody is in Sheets and Docs and Forms.”

Even so, prior to 2018, they were stuck on a legacy industry-specific workflow system that most staff found painfully cumbersome. “It was so complex that it took three days of three-ring-binder training just to learn your way around it,” he recalls.

SUBSCRIBE: Sign up for the StateTech newsletter for weekly updates.

Convinced that they could do better, Williams and his team turned to Google Workspace “to capitalize on the tools we were already using and that people were comfortable with and liked.” Today, it uses Google’s cloud tools for all things communication and collaboration.

Using Google Sites, for example, the department built a public-facing website that provides up-to-date information about active emergencies. Situation reports are created in Google Docs, and the tool is paired with Google Chat and Google Meet to enable emergency response coordination and real-time communication between personnel. Google Maps and Google Earth are used to easily convey location information, and other Google tools are used for administrative purposes, including communication between office employees.

“There’s probably nothing whizbang about our approach, it’s just great because it’s really easy,” Williams says. Anyone can use the tools as long as they’re either logged in or authenticated through their Google account, and the system as a whole is reliable and fast — an important consideration in this line of work.

Williams believes this is the way emergency operations should run. “It’s a frictionless environment, where you can focus on the information and the situation,” he says. “You’re not thinking about the technology. You just know that everything works.”