The Jackson Fire Department has been involved with the pre-incident survey of moderate or high hazard buildings for many years.  Pre-Incident survey of buildings provides suppression personnel with a better insight into what they might encounter upon arrival at an emergency situation.  The survey usually gives a detailed report showing a diagram of the building and grounds, what type of operations are carried out at the facility and includes the locations of hydrants, gas and electrical shutoff's, Knox Boxes, and other important information.

The compilation of pre-incident survey information has traditionally been an ongoing project conducted in conjunction with the annual company inspection program.  With the frequent changes in laws regarding storage and reporting of hazardous materials, the need to maintain current records regarding such facilities is of utmost importance.

Captains are responsible for site specific planning of occupancies in their district.  The goal of this project is to bring the Jackson Fire Department into compliance with current laws regarding Fire Fighter Right to Know and Sara Title III of the EPA.  Under these laws, the Fire Chief is responsible for compilation of a list of facilities within the Departments jurisdiction that use or produce chemicals and develop emergency response plans based on the type and amount of hazardous materials on the site.

To accomplish this goal, we have developed a program intended to meet the requirements of these laws.  We had to determine what information was required and once this was completed, a group of forms were developed to collect the required information.  The next step was to research our records on companies which had submitted inventories of the hazardous chemicals they used and identify what hazards were present.  We learned that a nearby fire department had been cited for non-compliance following an inspection by MIOSHA and we contacted them for information on the system they were using to attain compliance.

We then presented a training program for all members of the Jackson Fire Department.  The forms which had been developed were introduced to each company officer and detailed descriptions of the type of information to be collected.  Instructions on diagramming the facilities were provided.  The inventories previously submitted by businesses were distributed to each Captain based on their location.  The Captains were also given a list of all blueprints and plans available through the Fire Prevention Bureau and copies of any existing pre-incident surveys and related information was distributed.

Currently all plans received from the Captains are evaluated for completeness.  Those requiring additional information are returned to the appropriate Captain.  We are in the process of devising a universal system for the symbols to be used on the drawings and hope to develop further guidelines regarding the use of these symbols and on the drawing process will ensure that all information is consistent.

We also incorporated the identification numbers assigned to each business used in the Company Inspection Program to enable us to better coordinate information regarding specific business locations.  A relational database was developed to maintain the information gathered regarding the facility and its chemical inventory.  Fire fighters are performing data entry. At this time all drawings are being done manually and matched to printed forms with the aid of the copy machine.  All plans are filed by the business ID number and stored in the Captains office.  Once these plans are completed a system, we will enhance the system to enable us to retrieve the information with the greatest amount of ease and efficiency.  The guidelines call for the plans to be updated at least every five years, so this will be a long term and closely monitored project.