Responding to a medical call in a rural area outside of town, emergency responders pause for a moment to figure out how they can access a property. By the way, it’s the middle of a moonless night.
“We used to do that with our old manual map books and open it up,” Capt. Rich Saalsaa, Philomath Fire & Rescue’s fire and life safety officer remembered. “But at 4 o’clock in the morning and if it’s pitch dark and you’re trying to read this map, it just doesn’t go well.”
These days, modern-day technology has closed the book on those old methods and emergency responders can find their way through the help of a computerized database. Philomath Fire & Rescue’s recent equipment upgrades allows the district to input helpful information that comes in handy on a call.