We sat down recently with StationSmarts customer, Deputy Chief Mark Nelson of Milford, MA Fire Department.  

Like many in the fire industry, a direct family lineage has been the inspiration for Mark’s twenty-plus year (and counting) career in fire service. Mark’s father is a retired lieutenant. Starting out in Southbridge, MA in 1994, Mark moved up the ranks, returning to his hometown of Milford, MA in 1996. He earned his lieutenant’s badge in 2002 and was promoted to deputy chief in 2014.

Mark’s role is primarily focused on management of personnel and operations. As the only deputy chief in Milford, he wears many hats, staying involved across the department, also managing equipment, and taking his turn on the duty roster, responding to incidents.

With Mark’s interest, StationSmart’s co-founder, Dave Rocco, scheduled an onsite system demo at the department. Mark was immediately impressed when he discovered StationSmarts’ easy installation and full suite of fire department operational features: all in one mobile-friendly and unified database. Mark shared his enthusiasm with his chief, William J. Touhey, Jr., and encouraged him to join on with the StationSmarts solution. Compared to the records management system they had used previously, “StationSmarts launches right out of the box, all the forms ready to use from day one.“ In Mark’s words, “It’s truly, plug and play.”

Mark was immediately Impressed when he discovered that StationSmarts software is so easy to install and contains a full suite of features all in one mobile-friendly package.

Getting rid of the paper logbook has been a pivotal step for Milford Fire. With daily activities logged into StationSmarts’ activity tracker, operational activities can now be quickly filtered and reviewed. The department is currently using StationSmarts to maintain its staff training and fleet maintenance records. Mark and the Chief are planning to implement the use of the NFIRS reporting and inspections modules in the near future. Mark especially likes how all aspects of data are linked to a single property address, saving data entry time and making it easier to search for runs data and inspections such as the 26F.

Last year, Milford Fire responded to approximately 5,100 incidents, of which a large percentage were medical assistance calls. They also performed a significant number of commercial property inspections. Going forward, commercial inspections will be all the more efficient thanks to the StationSmarts pre-plan module. With StationSmarts available on all computers and mobile devices, Mark can see where his inspectors have been and what properties they have performed inspections on, with the touch of a button. This feature has enhanced his supervisory role and allowed him to make decisions about staffing, safety and training more effectively.

Mark wanted to be sure to mention to us how pleased he has been with StationSmarts’ customer service. In his words, “StationSmarts stands apart from its competition.”

Product Developer and co-founder, Greg Pica is always willing to answer Mark’s call, or set up a screen sharing session to work out a question. Greg’s support has been integral as Mark has worked to set up the CAD interface. StationSmarts integrates directly into Milford’s CAD system, pulling all run information to pre-populate the NFIRS reports and link runs to individual addresses.

“StationSmarts stands apart from its competition.”

Down the road, Mark plans to continue to implement more of StationSmarts’ modules, including commercial property inspections for strip malls and plazas, NFIRS reporting, along with training additional staff in the use of the software. He is seeing the early, positive results of utilizing a system with a unified database to manage his operation. Benefits include increased staff accountability, ease of daily oversight of the operation and overall efficiencies by moving paperless.