On Friday, April 8, 2022, at 4:59 PM, the Spokane Fire Department (SFD) was dispatched to a small brush fire reportedly near the intersection of South Russell and Highway 2. The incident was very close to Spokane's Fire Station 6, which allowed the company to quickly discover a 1/4 acre wildland urban-interface (WUI) fire that was wind-driven and moving swiftly.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: City of Spokane

More than a thousand people were without power in the Yakima Valley as wind and snow caused multiple power pole fires and power lines down. As of Monday morning between Yakima and Grandview, Pacific Power reports that more than 2200 homes and businesses were without power. In some cases Pacific Power has listed the cause as being due to trees in others Pacific Power indicates crews are still investigating.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS/CW+ 29 Yakima

Fire management officials on the Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests are starting spring prescribed burning to reduce the risk of severe wildfire. A news release from the Umatilla National Forest said frequent and low-intensity fire is essential for healthy forests and reducing the risk of intense wildfire caused by excessive fuel buildup.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Yakima Herald-Republic

As fire season approaches, officials with the Kennewick Fire Department are warning you to stay vigilant if you’re planning on lighting a match. Firefighters from across the area responded to a blaze Saturday afternoon where they found a line of arborvitae trees, three duplexes, two vehicles, and a boat that was all on fire.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KVEW-TV ABC 42 Kennewick/KAPP-TV ABC 35 Yakima

Waterloo, ONTARIO – April 12, 2022 – Mappedin, the leading platform for indoor mapping, announced today that it has launched its “Mappedin Response” product targeted at First Responder units. With the average North American spending 87% of their time indoors, First Responders increasingly need better situational awareness within the built environment. With expertise from working with the world’s largest building owners and operators, Mappedin enables First Responder teams to create, annotate, and view accurate indoor pre-plans in real-time.

Mappedin Response automatically digitizes paper-based floor-plans, allowing First Responder teams to maintain and access the most up-to-date version of every building floor-plan within their response area. This new product is being piloted across three Canadian cities, enabling Fire Departments to create and maintain pre-plans on-the-go from any tablet or PC.

“Over the last few years, Mappedin has spent time understanding the indoor mapping needs of Fire Response teams. It was clear that Fire Response teams were lacking access to up-to-date, digitized floor-plans to help with situational awareness before entering a building during an emergency,” said Hongwei Liu, CEO of Mappedin. “With our extensive experience in indoor mapping, we felt that this was our problem to solve. We have invested in Machine Learning to fully automate the conversion of paper-based floor-plans to a digitized format.”

With the built environment constantly evolving, having easily accessible tools to maintain accurate floor-plans at scale is critical. The Mappedin Response product has three functions to do this:

• Create – Automatically digitize raster floor-plans (i.e. photos). DXF, PNG and JPEG formats are accepted.
• Annotate – Once the floor-plans are digitized, add and edit symbols and annotations. NFPA and custom symbols are supported.
• View – Access up-to-date pre-plans to gain better spatial and situational awareness of a building in advance of arriving at an emergency call.

The development of the product was initially sponsored by The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under Contract # 70RSAT20CB0000014. Mappedin is thrilled to have worked with the DHS on this project and ultimately have an impact on the safety of our communities.

About Mappedin

Headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Mappedin is the leading platform for indoor spatial data management, digitizing venues, and building best-in-class indoor mapping experiences. Built for scale, Mappedin’s flexible platform and enterprise grade tools enable them to work with leading operators and developers around the world. For more information, please visit www.mappedin.com.