Agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries in the United States and Canada. Further, the unique hazards present on agricultural operations can pose challenges to firefighters and EMS personnel responding to on-farm or on-ranch emergencies. As a result, it is very advantageous for first responders to pre-plan agricultural operations and become familiar with the farms in their service areas. Potential benefits of pre-planning include protection of fire/EMS personnel from otherwise unforeseen risks, improved resource allocation and coordination of response efforts, and more efficient response times.
Farm Mapping to Assist, Protect and Prepare Emergency Responders (Farm MAPPER) is a free, interactive, data secure, and device-agnostic web-based tool developed by the National Farm Medicine Center (NFMC) to assist first responders with pre-planning farms and ranches. The goal of Farm MAPPER is to make responding to farm emergencies safer by providing first responders with onsite information about the hazards, resources, and physical layouts of agricultural operations. Access to this information when responding to an on-farm incident has the potential to decrease emergency response times, improve responder safety, expedite victim rescue, enhance structure protection, and facilitate rapid access to relevant resources.
Comments