I was wondering if there are any apps out there that will display address and unit information or general pager info for fire agencies? For example for Pierce County? Thanks.
All of these paging/alerting apps for smartphones/tablets/PCs require that the dispatching agency send a digital message to the app provider which in turn sends the alert notice out to any user registered for that specific fire/ems/whatever agency.
We had Active911 running here for a year. My ambulance squad first had to create an account with Active911. Then we had to coordinate with our local 911 dispatch center to insure that the proper message was being sent from 911 to Active911. Then we registered each smartphone with Active911 before it could receive the alerts. So only authorized phones can receive alerts for a specific agency.
The point here being that only folks affiliated with or authorized by an agency can actually receive alerts via these apps.
My county is using Impact Texting as part of their Impact CAD system. Basically, it sends an SMS to registered phones for each alert. But again, the phone is registered via the agency to the dispatch center. In our case, I maintain a small Excel file of our members and their phone info. When we get a new member or lose a member, I send an update to the Fire Coordinator who in turn sends that to the local 911 CAD administrator.
