The goal of this website is to promote and discuss the field of technical fire department analysis. Having spent time with fire departments across the country, it became apparent to me that few localities have the technical know-how to engineer and refine an effective and efficient deployment of their fire/rescue resources. Although both the Center for Performance Excellence (CPSE) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publish examples of risk and performance measurement, neither provide step-by-step tutorials. This blog is an attempt to both provide specific tutorials on how to conduct fire department analysis and provide a forum for critiquing and improving these methodologies.
This site also promotes a personal mission of mine … to promote fire and EMS education in third-world countries. See the “Zimamoto” section for more information and information about how to get involved.
About Me
While working on my Systems Engineering degree at the University of Virginia, I was a four-year volunteer firefighter for the Charlottesville Fire Department (Virginia). I also spent several summers working as a lifeguard for Nags Head Fire Department (North Carolina). 
Although I never imagined matching up my systems engineering background with my fire/rescue hobby, the Mitchell Scholarship (www.us-irelandalliance.org) gave me an opportunity to spend a year in Ireland working on a graduate degree in Fire Safety Practice at Trinity College Dublin and working part-time for the Dublin Fire Brigade. After a year in Ireland, I traveled through Africa for several months before coming home and taking a job with TriData, one of the top public safety consulting firms. Over the last four years, I was employed by TriData as an emergency services analyst and by Charlottesville Fire Department as a paramedic firefighter. Having worked as a technical analyst on over 40 different fire department studies across the country, I had a unique opportunity to understand and apply the most current fire department performance measurement and data analysis techniques. Although I still contract with TriData, I am now running my own consulting firm (FireGeek Consulting) and am looking forward to working with fire departments on developing their data analysis and GIS capabilities.
