Deployment Methodology for Fire Departments

Jan M. Chaiken, Edward Ignall, Warren Walker

ResearchPublished 1975

A review of mathematical methods that have been developed to assist fire departments in analyzing and improving the deployment of their fire-fighting resources. The key issues are (1) determining the number of fire companies to have on duty citywide and in each region of the city, (2) determining the specific location for each fire company, (3) developing a policy for redeploying fire companies when large numbers of companies are busy at fires, and (4) developing a policy for dispatching fire companies to alarms. The authors describe what mathematical models are available to analyze existing deployment policies and to develop improved policies, the principles on which the models operate, what they can be used for, when and how to use them, and the data needed for each one.

Document Details

  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1975
  • Pages: 86
  • Document Number: R-1853-HUD

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Chaiken, Jan M., Edward Ignall, and Warren Walker, Deployment Methodology for Fire Departments. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1975. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R1853.html.
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