The core values of the fire service are to protect lives, property, and the environment through preparedness, prevention, public education, and emergency response. Fire service leaders want to deliver on these values while emphasizing quality services, efficiency, effectiveness, and safety. To do that, they must surround themselves with information from varied and often nontraditional data sources. Data, and the knowledge it contains, are the life blood of the fire service. Today, fire and emergency services leaders have access to massive amounts of data, both structured and unstructured. Partnerships with the technology industry should be pursued at a national level so that publicly shared data can be coupled with response data to better understand local communities and how to better provide fire department services. Since the importance of using data is no longer a question, the major challenge facing fire departments is how to process more data faster… for preparedness, prevention, operational insights, and firefighter safety and wellbeing.
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