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Improving the Deployment of New York City Fire Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Edward J. Ignall

    (The New York City-Rand Institute, New York, New York)

  • Peter Kolesar

    (The New York City-Rand Institute, New York, New York)

  • Arthur J. Swersey

    (The New York City-Rand Institute, New York, New York)

  • Warren E. Walker

    (The New York City-Rand Institute, New York, New York)

  • Edward H. Blum

    (The New York City-Rand Institute, New York, New York)

  • Grace Carter

    (The New York City-Rand Institute, New York, New York)

  • Homer Bishop

    (The New York City Fire Department, New York, New York)

Abstract

How many fire companies does New York City need and where should they be located? Given a fire alarm of unknown severity, how many companies should be dispatched to it? These two questions are fundamental issues in the deployment of the City's fire-fighting resources.Since 1968, the New York City Fire Department and The New York City-Rand Institute have carried out a joint project to improve the delivery of Fire Department services in the face of skyrocketing demand. In November 1972, two historical deployment changes were implemented: (a) six of the 375 fire companies in the City were disbanded and seven other companies were permanently relocated; and (b) in high fire incidence areas of the City, an adaptive response policy was implemented. Under adaptive response, fewer companies are initially dispatched to potentially less serious alarms. This is in contrast to the traditional dispatching policy where the same number of companies are dispatched to each alarm.The joint Fire Department-Rand Institute project and the analyses which led to these and other improvements and the wide range of mathematical models used are described. The changes have resulted in savings to the Fire Department of over $5 million per year, a reduction in the workload of fire companies and a more equitable distribution of fire companies throughout the City.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward J. Ignall & Peter Kolesar & Arthur J. Swersey & Warren E. Walker & Edward H. Blum & Grace Carter & Homer Bishop, 1975. "Improving the Deployment of New York City Fire Companies," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 5(2-part-2), pages 48-61, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:5:y:1975:i:2-part-2:p:48-61
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.5.2pt2.48
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Linda V. Green & Peter J. Kolesar, 2004. "ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE: Improving Emergency Responsiveness with Management Science," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(8), pages 1001-1014, August.
    2. Adam Behrendt & Vineet M. Payyappalli & Jun Zhuang, 2019. "Modeling the Cost Effectiveness of Fire Protection Resource Allocation in the United States: Models and a 1980–2014 Case Study," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(6), pages 1358-1381, June.
    3. P. Daniel Wright & Matthew J. Liberatore & Robert L. Nydick, 2006. "A Survey of Operations Research Models and Applications in Homeland Security," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 514-529, December.
    4. Peter J. Kolesar, 2012. "OM Forum --Some Lessons on Operations Management Model Implementation Drawn from the RAND Fire Project," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 1-6, January.
    5. Md Shahab Uddin & Pennung Warnitchai, 2020. "Decision support for infrastructure planning: a comprehensive location–allocation model for fire station in complex urban system," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 102(3), pages 1475-1496, July.
    6. Kaplan, Edward H., 2008. "Adventures in policy modeling! Operations research in the community and beyond," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-9, February.

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