General Discussion > Country Fire Service

Tablets / Electronic maps

(1/1)

FF:
Are any brigades using tablets or other forms of electronic mapping in their appliances (CFS or otherwise)? We get by reasonably well with the UBD and the Emergency Services Map book but if there is technology around that can improve our navigation both around town and to rural jobs it would be good to embrace it. I'm interested to know what tablets and software others have tried and the good and bad points found.
Thanks.

Pipster:
I like the idea of tablets etc in an appliance - a great resources.  However, at Sampson Flat, strike teams were sent to s specific location.  My appliance got the map book out, and navigated to where we had to go.

Other appliances had to ask for directions, as they only had a tablet (no map book) and either it was too hard to work it out, or they had no service (which was a distinct possibility)

Pip

JJD:
We use a combination of the traditional UBD and CFS Map book and a HEMA Navigator 6. It is similar to a TomTom or Navman GPS however you can switch between street navigation and topographical maps (like the maps in the CFS Map Book).
I have yet to utilise its full potential at incidents as I'm more of a traditional map book person but I can see its usefulness for those that have difficulty navigating.
One thing to be careful of is the reliability of the HEMA devices. Though we haven't experienced any problems with ours just yet, I have heard that they have a reputation of unreliability.

Jas

Edit: Also, no electronic device should ever replace traditional maps and navigation methods, if you end up with some sort of device, ensure that all relevant maps and/or books are still carried on your appliance!

Grim:
we use the HEMA, the SFC map books, a GPS and a tablet with different maps, imagery etc

BPLockBri:
when i did my BF1 in Bridgewater they had tablets in their trucks.

at the Lock station we recently bought a Garmin GPS that included earth tracks, showing farm tracks and conservation park tracks. this has helped us so much with recent fires and car accidents

Navigation

[0] Message Index