Transcript Assessing the Response Performance of Warren County Fire Stations, Kentucky Erin Lynch, Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, Department of Geography & Geology,

Assessing the Response Performance of Warren County Fire Stations, Kentucky
Erin Lynch, Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, Department of Geography & Geology, Western Kentucky University
Response Time
Urban
Suburban
Rural
Total
<4 min
38,113 (72.6%)
2,583 (43.4%)
2,160 (6.3%)
42,855 (46.3%)
<8 min
48,465 (92.3%)
4,086 (68.8%)
7,552 (22.1%)
60,103 (64.9%)
<10 min
50,542 (96.3%)
4,919 (82.8%)
12,036 (35.3%)
67,498 (72.9%)
<14 min
50,709 (96.6%)
5,442 (91.6%)
19,231 (56.4%)
75,381 (81.5%)
>14 min
1,789 (3.4%)
500 (8.4%)
14,851 (43%)
17,141 (18.5%)
Total
52,498
5,942
34,082
92,522
Methods
Fire Station Locations
Bowling Green has five fire districts: Northside,
Central, Airport, Westside, and Southside. Other
fire stations in Warren County are manned by
volunteers, so they were neglected for this study.
The locations of the Bowling Green fire stations
were retrieved from the Bowling Green Municipal
Website.
Vehicle Speeds
Speeds were assigned to roads on the basis of
the Census Feature Class Codes. A2 (Primary
Road Without Limited Access) and A3
(Secondary and Connecting Road) roads were
assigned a speed of 40mph. A4 (Local,
Neighborhood, and Rural Road) and A63 (Access
Ramp) roads were assigned a speed of 35mph.
A5 (Vehicular Trail) and A7 (Road as Other
Thoroughfare) may not have surfaces suitable for
swift progress by fire vehicles, so they were
assigned a negligible speed of 0.1mph. A1
(Primary Highway With Limited Access) roads
were also assigned a speed of 0.1mph as fire
vehicles are unlikely to use these roads because
access is restricted to on/off ramps.
Performance Indicators
The National Fire Protection Association
Standard NFPA10 for career fire departments
establishes the following time objectives:
Fire response time: Four minutes (240
seconds) or less for the arrival of the first
arriving engine company at a fire suppression
incident and/or eight minutes (480 seconds) or
less for the deployment of a full first alarm
assignment at a fire suppression incident.
Additionally, NFPA 1720 establishes the
following response times for volunteer fire
departments:
Zone
Demographics
(person/mi2)
Response
Time (min)
Urban
>1000
9
Suburban
500-1000
10
Rural
<500
14
Analysis
To determine the response performance of the
Warren County career fire stations, network
analysis was performed on the Census 2000
TIGER/Line road data for Warren County.
Census 2000 block shapefiles and
demographic data were employed to
determine the proportion of the Warren
County population located within each fire
response time bracket. Note that Census
2000 demographic data under-represents the
counties
Findings
Overall Response Performance
Urban Response Performance
The career fire stations in Bowling Green serve 46.3% of
the county’s population with an excellent response time
of 4 minutes or less, and 64.9% of the county’s
population with an acceptable response time of 8
minutes or less.
The career fire stations in Bowling Green serve
72.6% of the county’s urban population with
an excellent response time of 4 minutes or
less, and 92.3% of the county’s urban
population with an acceptable response time
of 8 minutes or less. This meets national
standards.
Suburban Response Performance
The career fire stations in Bowling Green serve
only 82.8% of the county’s suburban
population with a response time of 10
minutes or less. This falls short of national
standards for career and volunteer fire
stations.
Rural Response Performance
The career fire stations in Bowling Green serve
56.4% of the county’s rural population with a
response time of 14 minutes or less. This
falls short of national standards for career
and volunteer fire stations.
Recommendations
In light of the county’s predicted failure to meet national
fire response performance standards, it is
recommended that some of the volunteer fire stations
in Warren County be upgraded to career fire stations.
References
1. Census Feature Class Codes. Retrieved on September 29, 2008 from
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/cfcc_to_mtfcc.txt
2. Fire Districts – Bowling Green, KY – Official Municipal Website.
http://www.bgky.org/fire/districts.php
3. GIS for Fire Station Locations and Response Protocols, p12.
Retrieved on September 20, 2008 from
http://www.geographymatters.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/gis-forfire.pdf
4. SAFER Grants: 2007 FAQ: National Fire Protection Association
Standards. Retrieved on September 29,2008 from
http://www.firegrantsupport.com/safer/faq/07/faq_natstand.aspx
5. US Census Bureau – Tiger/Line. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/