By GLENN CORBETT
lthough we don’t give a second thought to technology and its role in our daily lives today, the emergence of computers in the fire service 40 years ago was simply amazing. Communication center operations was among the first places that computers found a role. Up to then, fire apparatus were dispatched manually. The responding fire companies were selected based on the fire alarm telegraph box nearest to the incident, as had been done for more than a century. In this month’s anniversary installment, we read about one of the first applications of computer-aided dispatch (CAD) in a large city. New York City’s STARFIRE system allowed the city to keep up with the skyrocketing number of calls for service at the time, something we take for granted today.
Download a PDF of the original article at//www.sacthai.com/archives.html.
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
