FIRE INCIDENT REPORTING SYSTEM:
NEAR REAL TIME DATA AND GEOSPATIAL
ANALYSIS APPROACH
Mary Joy E. Lunar
maryjoy_lunar@yahoo.com
+(63) 9496700178
Quezon City, Metro Manila 1105
Abstract
Effective fire incident management in the fire service
and the ever-increasing data collection points is of growing
importance. Though, academic literature and research contain
examples of real-time data and geospatial analysis initiatives, few
in fire incident management.
This research aims towards a development of a modern
Fire Incident Management System with a near real-time data and
geospatial analysis in the city of Quezon City. The main features
of the system’s address (a) benchmark usability issues for data, (b)
management reflect timelines of data or report processing and, (c)
comprehending the spatial patterns of fire incidents to support
decision-making policy.
Prior to the development of the system, the researcher
conducted a series of activities for data gathering, such as
observation, interviews, and survey from 25 respondents. Among
them, twelve (12) were fire investigators, five (5) were involved in
fire suppression, three (3) were doing administrative work, three
(3) were in statistics or analysis, and two (2) were IT experts.
Questionnaires were used to collect the data to support the
rationality of the research. This research used the descriptive
statistics from the gathered data to determine the needs of the fire
service. Specifically, the mean, weighted mean, frequency
percentage, and ranking were computed from the results of the
different statements per category based on the survey
questionnaires that measured using the Likert’s scale. In addition,
the level of importance of the proposed solution’s functionality,
usability, reliability, and performance were also considered.
During interviews and conduct of presentation and
survey results, the researcher acquired the differences in delivery
method of submission of fire incident reports. Moreover, the pre-
defined challenges encountered by the respondents in collecting
data for Fire Incident Reporting Analysis obtain a weighted mean
of 2.60. This means that each group of respondents asserted that
their work performance is nearly perfect. The effort is already
acceptable, and they were already used with that day-to-day
activity. In addition, the result of the survey obtained from the
respondents in the acceptability of the system shows that it is
Moderately Acceptable gaining an overall mean of 3.97. It means
that from the pre-identified challenges up to the developed
systems, the respondents aim to connect with the virtual world to
utilize ICT as an innovative tool in promoting effective fire safety
and utilizing an Information System that is efficient, effective, and
accurate in fire incident reporting.
Furthermore, the recommendation of respondents to
integrate with other systems for the fire service will be for future
work.
General Terms
Data Management, Fire Incident, Near Real-Time Analytics,
Geospatial
Keywords
geospatial, real time, fire incident reporting, fire incident
management, dashboard analytics.
1. INTRODUCTION
In today’s world we are realizing an incredible expanse of
available data and an ever data collection points. Effective fire
incident management on the other hand, is of growing importance.
With increasing demands for public safety, the fire service must
utilize the best tools, techniques, and training methods to meet
public expectations. Risk management, preparedness, and
mitigation are being given new importance in light of the
challenges the fire service is facing today.
The fire service exists today in a setting being constantly
inundated with data. The fire service collects an immense amount
of data. However, very little is actually done with this information.
Much in printed form is stored in drawers, almost like junk, and
seldom utilized. Turning data into useful information is neither
simple nor easy. It requires knowledge of appropriate tools and
techniques. Historically, the Fire Service has largely neglected or
ignored the utility of ICT resources due to internal issues,
concerns, and doubts regarding the impact of ICT on the Bureau’s
work.
Operational and transaction databases generally don’t maintain or
track all transactions going backward in time. They periodically
summarize data and maintain historical values for a limited time,
such as a monthly or annual report that doesn’t keep the daily
information used to create it. Even when some historical values are
stored, the level of detail and amount stored in a canned report is
usually quite limited, and may not allow you to drill down further.
This limits your ability to create “what if” scenarios for exploring
a potential trend or series of occurrences that do not initially
appear related.
Incident reporting in the Bureau of Fire Protection is a tedious task
and labor extensive, from the preparation of a report after an
operation by FIA investigators to verification by a Fire
Commander to the report’s communication through fax to the
regional office and on to the National Headquarters. [2]Among
things noted in an interview with the Director for Operation is the phases in the theory of evaluate and learn and build and learn: This
lack of a database for monitoring existing facilities (such as fire assisted the researcher in constructing the conceptual framework
hydrants), road networks, land uses, hospitals, etc. Data on past of the study. [6] Figure 1 illustrates the Input-Process-Output
fire incidents (showing damage to property and loss of lives) and model for this research study.
inspection reports lack validation and leave plenty of room for
human error. Presently, the BFP is equipped with computers to
process documents necessary to the accomplishment of the bulk of
administrative and operational duties. However, these are
unconnected stand-alone computers. The lack of network
connection results in decentralized information management.
Communication, furthermore, is limited, as radios used in
operations have restricted coverage and differing technical
platforms. [3] The Bureau of Fire Protection lacks capability for
reportage in real time. This demonstrates the present researcher’s
proposition that the fire service in our country has a dire need to
adopt technology for the safety of its personnel and the
community.

In Quezon City, the largest city in the National Capital Region,

1,246 fires occurred in CY 2016 which amounts to 24.33% of the
total 5,121 fire incident in the NCR. Of the 67 reported fatalities in
the whole Region, 9 were from Quezon City or 13.4% of the
Region’s total. With regards to injuries, for both civilians and
firefighters, the Region suffered 146 casualties, of which 76
individuals or 52% were from Quezon City. In damages, NCR
incurred a total of 601.13M. Of this figure, Quezon City carried
123.4M or 20.5% of the Region’s losses. [1]
The Integrated National Fire Incident Reporting System in the
United States, the biggest leap of technology in terms of fire
incident management, started from gathering information on fire
incidents over two decades. Annual conventions have been held to
enhance the system and to cater to all the states and regions of the
USA. Other countries also have been encouraged and are
determined to follow the evolution of the technology since, in the
field of natural and man-made disasters, the fire has played a
predominant role. Fire is a crucial concern in the development of
human society, making it an important part of the history of human
civilization. Among various types of calamities, fire poses a
substantial threat to life and property.
The idea of the NFIRS, with the development of the Fire Incident
Management System with geospatial and data analysis, will be a
powerful tool in the Philippines in terms of planning, as it offers
an understanding of situations, and allows the user to display and
analyze locations from the real world into the digital world. The
so-called geographic profiling of incidents is one of the
methodologies that analyze the location of a connected series of
fire incidents to determine an appropriate program strategy. This
will serve as a basis for developing public fire awareness
campaigns and other fire-related programs and activities. The
pattern that would emerge from this collated information will help
the bureau focus on the existing problems, predict future
occurrences and measure their programs’ successes. Also,
emergency preparedness planning along with the establishment of
a fire emergency response database is an important matter that can
affect people’s lives and save properties. If designed properly and
implemented quickly, these can save hundreds or thousands of
human lives and mitigate some of the economic losses in affected
areas. [4] For effective fire management, conventional fire records
must be supported with maps and there should be dynamic integral
spatial data together with limitations and information on risk areas.
[5]
The theoretical framework that will be used in this research will be
the multi-methodological approach. Nunamaker, et al. (1997)
proposed a framework for IS research that consists of four major
phases: theory building, experimentation, observation and systems
development. In this study the researcher uses the four (4) major
Figure 1 Research Paradigm
Input ‒ (a) information, ideas, and resources used. (b) evaluation
of the current manual method of fire incident analysis and the level
of acceptance using ISO 9126-1. (c) fire Incident details from the
fire scene (that have to be communicated to the top brass). (d) the
presence of pre-identified challenges, and (if any) how often such
challenges were encountered. (e) the level of acceptance for a
developed system in terms of functionality, usability, reliability
and performance.
Process – From the input the development of theories of what the
organization needs for its personnel. Involved strategies and
processes and technology which justify and align with the
development of the system are necessary for the acceptance of
technology transfer ‒ starting from the design to the methods and
to the simulation.
Output ‒ Results of the processing that then exit the system
(characterized by the evaluated ISO 9126-1 System Evaluation and
Testing), Evaluated FIMS, and the recommendation to improve the
system.
2. METHODS
The objective of this research is to develop a modern fire incident
reporting system with data and geospatial analysis in a near real
time business analytics approach. However, selecting which
research method to adopt in Information Technology research
effort is dependent on a certain factors due to the diverse nature of
IT and its related technologies. But, like other research, IT
research must not be dominated by a single research methodology
since the utilization of a single research methodology can be
restrictive. Utilizing a quantitative research method in this research
in a descriptive approach indicates that the criteria is based on
quantifiable measures of subject once in the form of observation,
interviews and survey. Since quantitative approach has been used,
accurate sampling of the subset of the personnel involves in fire
incident reporting and management in Quezon City, NCR is
sample frame used in this research study. To focus on particular
characteristics of a population that are of interest, which will best
enable to answer the research questions, a purposive sampling
technique of a non-probability sampling strategy is being adopted.
From which twenty (20) respondents as the target user in the
operation- called fire investigators, five (5) involve during fire
suppression, five (5) doing administrative works, five (5) those
involves in statistics or analysis and another five (5) for IT experts.
Their recommendations will served as the basis for further
revisions and improvement of the system.
The Developmental research on the other hand, under cross
sectional studies has been applied in the development of the said
information system. This answers the “what” and “how” of the
statement of the problem that will help in acquiring knowledge as
to why an information system has to be developed. Also, it does
not only focus on product design and development but the
developed systems to be evaluated as well.
To build a functional modern fire incident management with data
and geospatial analytics requires planning, gathering of needed
data, issues and problems encountered and why this research
should be paid attention to.
Figure 2 Rapid Application Development
In figure 2, shows the system development model that used in this
research, which is in line with the theoretical and conceptual
framework as discussed earlier.
Analysis. This consists of Business, Data and Process modeling
where the objective is to ensure the entire problems of manual
operations before to continue to implement the proposed system. It
also signifies to change all problems into usable forms/information
that able used in project development. Toolshero
(www.toolshero.com) defines business modeling as the specific
business objective and principles of the business model must be
clear in advance. This means that a complete business analysis
should be performed to find vital information flows about the
customer and how the information flow can be processed
successfully. Whereas, Data modeling refers to all information that
has been collected from the business model is assessed and
analyzed so that it will be of benefit to the customer. The
characteristics of all the data are identified and defined. The
relationship between these data is recorded and identified and
described in detail so that it will become relevant to the business
model. Additionally, Process Modeling refers to the object- data
sets defined in the data model are converted into the business
information flow which is necessary to achieve specific business
objectives that are in accordance with the business model. In this
business model changes and improvements are implemented
immediately. Also, new process descriptions are added, unusable
descriptions are removed or altered.
Design. Refers to the process and the information gathered will be
used to generate a design that provides solutions to the problems
of the current problem.
Testing. Denotes how feasible and how effective the systems’
being developed. Further, the information flow and the overlaps
between the components must be tested thoroughly to ensure
complete coverage.
Figure 3. FIMS Systems Architecture
Figure 3, shows the systems architecture of the
developed system. In developing the proposed system, this study
will be using bootstrap for User’s Interface Design using MeteorJS
as backend development and ReactJS as frontend development
with MongoDB framework for the web dashboard for the logical
and analytical application.
Data Loader API. Refers to the generic utility used in data
fetching layer to provide a simplified and consistent data sources
via batching and fetching. In Fire Incident Reporting System with
data and geospatial analysis modules ingested are the (a) fire
incident reports specifically the time and place of occurrence of
fire. The system users encode the reports after the incident. Take
note that the majority of the information is obtained at the scene
upon the notification of a fire call or fire incident. The Fire Arson
Investigator (FAI) who has jurisdiction over the location of the fire
incident conduct of initial inquiry through interview and elicitation
from all available witnesses at the fire scene. This must be done
instantaneously to complete the Spot Investigation. Otherwise,
Final Investigation Report modifies the original incident reports
when additional information becomes available or if any of the
original information changes additional reports to complete the
Final Investigation Report.; (b) mongo db for data processing
algorithm includes garbage in, garbage out, this instances includes
data cleansing for analysis, understanding the output of data for
visualization were considered. The crucial part for data
preprocessing is that, from data acquisition, matrices were
developed to be used includes data from incident database matches
with the (c)geospatial abstraction library raster/vector longitude
and latitude of the location in geospatial abstraction library where
open source JavaScript library for interactive maps called leaflet
js- designed with simplicity, performance, and usability.
Initially, all circumstances of fire incidents, using a reliable and
consistent coding methodology should be reported, after
responding to an incident. Fire Arson Investigators report the
incident by describing the nature incident, the firefighter’s action
in response to the incident, and the result that includes the number
of civilian or firefighter casualties and an estimate of property
losses in the web-based user interface by logging in first his/her
credential. Once the incident has been encoded it will be saved to
an incident container in mongo dB for analysis, real-time analytics
of Mongo dB will be integrated with Map server to produce data
analysis.
Database Architecture. The back end database used on this
proposed system is the MongodB. Through the pluggable storage
engines MongodB can be extended and since the researcher used
the bootstrap with MeteorJs and React Js the package include the
MongodB features (such as the oplog) to keep real-time data
reactivity efficient and client-side implementation investigators. To sum up, the Bureau of Fire Protection Top Brass
(called minimongo) which runs in the browser. Minimongo allows or Regulatory board can now access the analytics and will be able
you to write the same query for the server side and client side data to compare and contrast statistics from different areas
collections, and Meteor's observer feature lets react to changes to automatically. This will serve as the basis for developing public
both in real times. The MongoDB stores JSON documents in fire awareness campaigns and other fire-related programs and
“collections” with dynamic schemas. The database document its activities. The pattern that would emerge from this collated
data model to makes it easy to store and combine data of any information will help the bureau focus on the existing problems,
structure, without giving up sophisticated validation rules, flexible predict future occurrences and measure their programs’ successes.
data access, and rich indexing functionality.
The Software Engineering Metrics ISO 9126-1 was used to
Analytics Architecture. For Data Analytics, the developer uses measures Functionality, Usability, Reliability, and Performance of
the express (is the web application framework that runs the back- the Fire Incident Management System with data and geospatial
end application (javascript) code for analytics ) that handle the analysis a near real-time business analytics approach.
routing of requests to the right parts of the application to simply
provide a REST API – giving the front-end app access to the To ensure that the study was conducted as thoroughly and ethically
resources it needs e.g., the database. Node.js is an event-driven as possible the researcher adapted Shamoo A and Resnik D.
engine enables large numbers of operations to be performed in (2015) honesty, objectivity, integrity, carefulness, and openness
parallel, which is essential during applications scaling. Wherein, ethical principles.
the application makes a request and then continues working on
other useful tasks rather than stalling while it waits for a response. 3. RESULTS
The completion of the requested task is that the application is
informed of the results via a callback. Moreover, for geospatial
analytics, the developer uses leaflet javascript API in node js to The survey was carried out in four stages, first was the
push display the geospatial abstraction library raster/vector identification of the problems, the challenges, and how often these
longitude and latitude of the location from Open Street Map. were encountered. Second was the concept for developing the Fire
MongoDB was also designed to be used asynchronously and so it Incident Management System, with data and geospatial analysis, to
works well with Node.js applications. The MongoDB’s dynamic address the challenges identified in the first stage. Third was the
schema provides a significant advantage to the current applications reception of the developed system by possible target users. Last
that require ingesting, store, and process rapidly evolving data was the additional requests that target users recommended to be
streams from new sources through its powerful functionality and included in the system.
indexing the analytics.
During interviews and the conduct of presentation and survey
Visualization API. The system interface uses a React and Node.js results, respondents said that in their submission of incident
using a wide range of technologies built in the platform and reports, collected data were placed in Word, Excel, or PDF format,
algorithms JavaScript the three (3) major parts of the system are depending on the preference of those receiving a report. Due to
the following: differences in internet availability, such reports by BFP personnel
 User Interface – to view the main dashboard, encode were being delivered by email, either by fax, or by hard copy
data entry and the analytics. hand-carried by a liaison officer. The differences in delivery
 Watcher – a job scheduler that determines and collect method becomes a factor that affects the consolidation of the
information from the user encoding the data on real-time scenarios various reports. This means that the consolidation of emails, faxes,
 Analytics – the main dashboard generates a real score and hard copies into a single report invites room for error in the
on the ground by computing the gathered data from the compilation and merging of their contents.
enumerators and represents its data to different entities.
Pre-Defined Weighted
For the web dashboard, this will be the user interface Verbal Interpretation Rank
Challenges Mean
that supports this functionality, including:
 Inter-agency real-time GUI access; Process is dependent
2.92 SOMETIMES 1
 Real-time dashboard; on capable personnel
 Imagery and digital map data; Limited control and
visibility process of 2.76 SOMETIMES 2.5
 Geospatial analysis;
reports / Availability
 Combination of real-time business analytics approach.
Limited sharing
information and 2.76 SOMETIMES 2.5
USER’s Interaction. Each Fire Station will create an account for
customer services.
all Fire Arson and Investigation Personnel which will be
confirmed via email. After responding to an incident, fire Geographical location
2.72 SOMETIMES 4
investigators assigned in a fire incident case within his/her of Incident
jurisdiction will fill out the appropriate FIMS module that Delay in submission
2.68 SOMETIMES 5
describes the nature of the call, the actions firefighters took in of reports
response to the call, and the result which includes the number of Large on-going staff
2.56 SOMETIMES 6
civilian or firefighter casualties and an estimate of property loss. training cost.
Meanwhile, Operations /Fire Station who responded to a fire Time consuming and
incident should fill out the After Fire Operation Report. costly to produce 2.52 SOMETIMES 9
 Admin- has full control for the update or changes that reports.
have been done and what needs to be uploaded to the webserver Lack of security/
 Top Brass/ Change Maker- they have the same user level Unauthorized access 2.52 SOMETIMES 9
of access with admin, however, the only difference is that they do of reports
not have access to alter, debug or make some changes in the Duplication of data
2.52 SOMETIMES 9
dashboard system. Their dashboard is also different from the Fire entry.
 may help BFP personnel to perform their job, or not to use due to
WEIGHTE VERBAL the limitations of having no internet connection. Table 2, below
INDICATORS
D MEAN INTERPRETATION represents the results evaluated by the respondents to the
Moderately developed Fire Incident Management System.
PERFORMANCE 4.15
Acceptable

Moderately
RELIABILITY 3.95
Acceptable
On the assessment of respondent’s acceptance to the
Moderately developed systems entitled” Fire Incident Management System”,
FUNCTIONALITY 3.94 Acceptable Table No. 2 indicates that the average weighted mean is 3.97
which is “MODERATELY ACCEPTABLE”.
Moderately
USABILITY 3.82
Acceptable
With the objective to improve respondents’ performance
Moderately at work, they must understand that the developed system is useful.
OVERALL 3.97
Acceptable Ease of use (which will make the system usable and useful) will
Inconsistency of allow users to work on other tasks, consequently allowing one
2.52 SOMETIMES 9
Report Format person to carry out more work and, hence, direct affecting
Incomplete Data
2.52 SOMETIMES 9 perception of the system’s usefulness. During the presentation and
Entry survey, the respondents’ feedback on developed systems
Inconsistency in data performance in terms of “Capability of completing several tasks in
entry / Accuracy of 2.48 RARELY 12 a certain
Tableperiod of time”ofand
2 Evaluation “Data retrieval
Respondents to theshould be fast
Developed and
Fire
data entry easy”Incident
both Reporting
rated withManagement
4.16, considered
System “MODERATELY
Miskeying ACCEPTABLE.”
information/ Human 2.4 RARELY 13.5
Error The reliability of the system relates to levels of
Dispute over importance. The accepted level depends on the purpose of the
incorrect/undelivered System to the user. Just as the first 2 evaluated criteria,
2.4 RARELY 13.5
report/ respondents determined that the importance of the developed
Comprehensiveness system is it “can be of help for the decision making process,” and
High Error rates/ they gave it a weighted mean of 4.04 corresponding to
2.28 RARELY 15 “MODERATELY IMPORTANT.” In terms of Functionality,
Integrity
respondents noted “Ease of Operation” as the most important
OVERALL 2.6 SOMETIMES functionality of the developed system with the weighted mean of
4.20 with a verbal interpretation of “MODERATELY
Table 1 Evaluation of Respondents in Pre-define Challenges ACCEPTABLE.”
from Highest to Lowest based on their Weighted Mean
The developed system “Format consistency and
In the table above, the overall for total weighted mean is “2.6”. uniform” indicators in usability, opted by respondents as
This figure corresponds with “SOMETIMES.” This suggests that somewhat important, with the weighted mean of 3.92, which is
these challenges seldom or infrequently occur. The challenges equivalent to “MODERATELY ACCEPTABLE.”
listed above were predefined according to their possibility of
occurrence, not necessarily, because the researcher had seen them The ideas of those in administration and IT were considered to
previously. revise the system: how they wanted it to look, the idea to include
other reports from the local fire station level, and the reports to be
When “Process is dependent on capable personnel” appears as the generated not only weekly, monthly, and yearly but also hourly.
most frequent of the identified challenges with the weighted mean
of “2.92.” Additionally, “Limited sharing information and The implementation of the System in the Bureau of Fire
customer services” and “Limited control and visibility process of Protection would require a considerable investment. Hence, aside
reports / Availability” is a challenge for the Fire Service to from the obvious fact that this developed system could help in
produce reports as quickly as possible once a victim requests for it their daily work, most of the respondents during the presentation
for whatever reason, legal or for insurance purposes, ranks 2nd recommended the following: 1. Email notification; 2. Integration
with a weighted mean of “2.76”. “Geographical location of with HRIS, Logistics and EMS; and 3. Card and After-Activity
Incident” is a factor due to Bureau’s lack of the high technology, Report. This are the compiled recommendations/ suggestions of
which can identify the exact latitudinal and longitudinal the respondents to enhance the system.
coordinates of a fire incident right at its actual location that is
without returning to the fire office first, ranks 4th with a weighted 4. CONCLUSIONS
mean of “2.72.” A rank 5th, with a weighted mean of “2.68” is
“Delay in submission of reports”. This may happen when a fire From what it was found that, through the years, much
incident takes a long time. Also, a complicated process of effort has been devoted to analyzing fires and writing fire
composing the report contributes to delay. This process requires an investigation reports. From the pre identified challenges up to the
investigator to return to his office, access a word processor to developed systems, the results shows that respondents aims to
encode his narrative, and then gets it printed before he can submit connect with the virtual world to utilize ICT as an innovative tool
it. in promoting effective fire safety and utilizing an Information
System that is efficient, effective, and accurate in fire incident
While Dillon, A and Morris, M. (1996), define user acceptance as reporting.
the demonstrable willingness within the user group to employ The developed system will definitely fulfill the Bureau’s objective
information technology for the task it is designed to support. There of having fast and efficient service for the organization, other
were two determinants – to use or not to use. To use because it agencies, and the public.
  This will cement the standardization of Fire Incident and
Investigation Procedure, thus increasing the customer’s (public)
satisfaction, having reduced turn-around time to deliver fire
incident reporting.
 Fire Investigators turn-around time to complete the Fire
Incident Report will be reduced as the system has a drag-down
functionality with keywords and/or key elements embedded in
each field, thus Fire Investigators’ manual typing will be reduced
if not eliminated. Historical data compiled in the database will be
of great aid to the Fire Investigators, as they will have a baseline
data as to the history of a structure being investigated.
 Reports will be accessible 24/7 in any location where
computer is networked. This will reduce cost since transmittal and
turn-around time to have the information needed will be
significantly reduced.
 Operational Cost (i.e. office supplies, transmittals, and
communications) will likewise be reduced as Fire Personnel will
just log on to the system to get required information.
Having the key benefits mentioned above in line with Bureau’s
goals and objectives, it is recommended to introduce a computing
system by way of a Philippine Fire Incident Management System
as an upgrade to the manual process currently being done.

5. REFEREFENCES

1. BFP Agency Profile as of July 2017.

2. BFP Operations Manual release 2014.
3. BFP, ISSP FY 2015-2019.
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http://www.anhnses.com/uploads/Projects/
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