Purpose
Pre-Plans provide responding personnel with critical occupancy, building, access, fire protection, hazard, and tactical information before and during an incident. Consistent collection and presentation of this information can improve situational awareness and help responders quickly identify important building features and hazards.
This article provides general best practices for creating, documenting, publishing, and maintaining Pre-Plans in First Due. Your agency's policies may establish additional requirements for the information that must be collected or how often Pre-Plans must be reviewed.
Background
Pre-incident planning is the process of collecting and organizing information about an occupancy, property, or special location before an emergency occurs. The objective is to make operationally relevant information readily available to responding personnel so they can better understand the building, identify known hazards, evaluate access and fire protection features, and make informed decisions during an incident.
First Due provides a centralized location for maintaining this information and presenting it to responders through the property record and map. Pre-Plan information can include map icons, files, contact information, and other occupancy-specific data that personnel can reference during response.
A useful Pre-Plan should provide enough information to support incident operations without overwhelming the user. Information should be entered consistently, placed at the appropriate location on the map, and kept current as conditions at the property change. Uniform data entry and presentation help improve situational awareness and allow important information to be identified more quickly.