Urban Fire Station Response-Time Optimisation and Dispatch System

Objective: To reduce emergency response times for urban fire stations using data-driven route planning and incident prioritisation for municipal fire departments.

Urban fire emergencies in Indian cities suffer from delayed response times due to congested roads, poor resource allocation, incomplete address data, and lack of real-time situational awareness. This directly affects public safety, property loss, and even lives, mapping to the mandates of municipal fire departments and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

The proposed solution is a digital platform that integrates real-time incident reporting, intelligent routing using live traffic and geospatial data, and dynamic resource dispatch for fire stations. It leverages open data, government GIS layers, and crowd-sourced inputs to optimise the nearest available unit's deployment and provide actionable information to first responders.

Key features include a dispatcher dashboard, mobile app for field teams, integration with city address databases and OpenStreetMap, live traffic overlays (e.g., MapmyIndia or Google Maps APIs), predictive incident heatmaps, and incident outcome tracking. The prototype will demonstrate end-to-end case handling, from incident intake to unit arrival and feedback collection, enabling continuous optimisation.

The project measures impact through reduction in average response times, improved coverage of incidents, and user feedback from fire officials. It is designed for scalability across urban local bodies, with potential integration into existing Smart City command centers, and can be adapted for other emergency services.