Two California firefighters decided just one on-duty loss was too many. So they developed an app to help keep themselves and fellow first-responders across the country safe.
Tablet Command launched in 2013, first as a standalone platform, and then in 2014 as a service that could be tied to 911 centers. The California-based startup was co-founded by two members of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, Assistant Fire Chief Will Pigeon and Capitan Andy Bozzo, after losing two firefighters in the line of duty in 2007.
"I was a new firefighter, and Andy had just come out of the academy when this happened," Pigeon said. "The chiefs started looking at some way to ensure something similar didn't happen in the future."
The platform is a response management and incident notification tool that allows incident commanders to assign units to a call and see the details. It then allows the incident commander to track the unit, assign tasks, see vehicle locations and provide customized mapping and call notes from dispatch.
"It basically takes multiple different tools a battalion chief was using previously and consolidates it down into one screen that's shared with the department in real time," Pigeon said. "A pad of paper and pen are confined to their vehicle, but now they're using this mobile tool that has all the information they need for an incident in one place. It gives everyone involved better situational awareness and better communication."
Pigeon said the startup stemmed from an idea Bozzo had while playing the mobile app game Words with Friends.
"(Bozzo) was off duty and dragging these tiles around on Words with Friends when he had this epiphany," he said. "If you can drag a tile to a space in this game, why can't you do the same thing (in an incident management app) to indicate engines and personnel are assigned to a task."
Because Tablet Command's software is linked to a department's dispatch center, it sends instant notifications when a call comes in. As soon as dispatch enters the address and call type into their system, the software notifies the firefighters.
"They can open the app and see the call details... Firefighters who are responding can see these notes and pull up on a map where the hydrants are," he said. "They can map out the call before they even get to their engine."
About 125 departments in North America are currently using the platform, including the Charlotte Fire Department.
CFD Battalion Chief Mike Mitchum said the department began using Tablet Command about three years ago. The department's eight battalion chiefs each have an iPad loaded with the software, which provides a standardized way of tracking tasks and resources.
"We mainly use it now for firefighter accountability and tracking," Mitchum said. "We hope to never encounter this, but if an emergency occurs, and we lose track of a firefighter, Tablet Command would have some idea of where they were operating."
The department, he said, took a slow-moving approach to implementing the platform to ensure effectiveness. Tablet Command is not used on routine medical calls or car accidents, currently, and only the dispatch centers and battalion chiefs have access to the application.
"We sort of did the crawl, walk, run approach, and right now, we're up to the walking phase," Mitchum said. "The battalion chiefs have access because they generally respond to more involved and complex incidents like working fires where we have multiple companies and resources operation simultaneously."
"Particularly in the initial five to 10 minutes of an incident, there's controlled chaos, and this is a good way to manage and oversee that," he added. "In that time, our dispatch center will initiate and track the companies using the software prior to the battalion chief's arrival, so when we get there we have very little catching up to do."
