This project's theme is to investigate the resource type and allocation of the SF Fire Department. By this, we mean to identify and visualize what areas have the most activity, and what kind of activity (medical, fire, electrical, gas leak, etc.) they have. This is important as it will help identify the needs of each area and allow for the efficient allocation of funds and training. Additionally, visualizing the data in this way may help identify specific infrastructure needs such as building repair, updated power lines, gas pipe improvements, and increased availability of medical assistance.
In Roger’s visualization, medical incident calls are by far the most frequent call type with a count of 214580 (70.3%). The second largest one is alarms (11.7%). The frequency of fire related calls (structure and outside) summed to 10.3%, with structure fires occurring 5.9 times as much as outside fires. This highlights the fact that the primary function the SF Fire Department seems to serve is that of medical/paramedic services, with alarm response and fire control being distant secondaries.
Divya’s first visualization displays that most of the calls from the neighborhoods are considered life threatening medical emergencies, which aligns with the discovery from Roger’s pie chart, and highlights the fact that the calls need to be addressed with high priority and with short response times. So, we look to her second visualization which shows that the majority of neighborhoods have short travel times, with the exception of places like Treasure Island and Lakeshore have very long travel times (9 minutes). This implies that response times are also long for potentially life threatening emergencies in those areas, which is something that may be improved on in the future by planning and implementing infrastructure improvements such as modifying traffic patterns, improving road conditions, using specialized vehicles, and building more stations.
As you can see from the color distribution in Tracy’s parallel coordinates, most of the activity occurs in the waking hours of the day (6am to 7pm), which indicates that stations should be more heavily staffed during those times if possible. This also means that if staff cuts need to be implemented, they should avoid reducing the number of fighters or paramedics during these peak hours in order to mitigate a reduction in service availability and efficacy.
In conclusion, we find that possible changes that may improve the impact of the SF Fire Department may be to dramatically increase the number of paramedic/medical units available and maintain a full and active staff during the “day shift.” Additionally, infrastructural improvements that may be conducted by the city include traffic congestion management and road maintenance.