Firehouse 360

Adding map markers and exporting your map data

Adding a marker

Markers are added on the website, not inside the app — open firehouse360.com in your phone's browser and go to Pre-Incident & ISO → District map. Anything you add there appears on the map in the responder app straight away.

We did it this way on purpose. Your phone's browser reads the same GPS chip the app does, so nothing is lost — and it means the feature works on every phone today, including iPhones, and gets fixed without waiting for an app update.

Tip: add the website to your home screen and it opens full-screen like an app. On iPhone that is Share → Add to Home Screen; on Android, Menu → Install app.

Step by step

  1. Stand at the spot — the hydrant, the gate, the Knox box.
  2. Open District map and tap 📍 Use my location. Allow location access when your browser asks; without it the button cannot do anything.
  3. Check the accuracy it reports. Under about 25 metres is fine. If it says more than that, you are probably on a wi-fi fix rather than GPS — tap the exact spot on the map instead to correct it.
  4. Pick what it is: hydrant, hazard, Knox box, key, gate, utility shutoff, mile marker, other water supply.
  5. Give it a name a crew will understand at 3 a.m. — “Knox box — rear door, 150 Main St” beats “Knox 4”.
  6. Save. It is on the map immediately, for your department and for neighbouring departments within 50 miles.

Notes you add stay inside your own department. The pin and its name are shared; the note is not.

Adding a hydrant

Picking Hydrant adds a couple of extra fields, because a hydrant is more than a pin — it gets inspection and flow-test tracking and it counts toward your ISO report.

The NFPA 291 flow class is the one to be careful with. It comes from a flow test measured at 20 psi residual pressure, not from the colour of the paint:

  • Class AA — light blue — 1,500 GPM or more
  • Class A — green — 1,000–1,499 GPM
  • Class B — orange — 500–999 GPM
  • Class C — red — under 500 GPM

If nobody has flow tested it, leave it on “Unknown”. Barrels get repainted whatever colour was in the shed, so the paint is not evidence. A blank makes the next crew ask the question; a wrong “Class AA” makes them commit to water that is not there. You can fill the class in later, once the test is done. (NFPA also puts the class colour on the bonnet and caps — the barrel itself is chrome yellow for a public hydrant.)

Editing or removing one

Tap any pin on the map. If it is your department's record you get an Edit option; hydrants open their own page, landing zones open their row on Map data, and other markers can be edited right there on the map. Everything is also listed on Pre-Incident & ISO → Map data.

You will not see Edit on a pin shared by a neighbouring department. You can read their records, but only they can change them — the name on the pin tells you who to ring if something is wrong.

Who can add markers

Admins and above. Map data is what a crew trusts at 3 a.m., so it is kept to the people accountable for it. Everyone in the department can see the map.

Exporting your map data

Go to Pre-Incident & ISO → Map data and click ⬇ Export CSV. You get one spreadsheet with every hydrant, landing zone and marker your department owns.

The file uses the same column layout Active911 uses, so it opens straight in Excel and imports back into Active911, into Firehouse 360, or into most other mapping tools. Our own extra fields — flow class, hydrant size, landing-zone surface, approach and obstructions — are added as extra columns on the end, which tools that do not recognise them simply ignore.

The export contains your department's records only. Pins shared by neighbouring departments show on your map so a crew can find the nearest water, but they are not yours to hand out in a file.

There is no charge for this and no limit on how often you do it. If you ever leave Firehouse 360, the work your members put into walking the district goes with you.