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Spokane firefighters hope new fire map can help fight wildfires

The WCFA map uses real-time 911 dispatch call data from PulsePoint while another national service provides ongoing wildfire location and boundary data.

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Fire Department (SFD) is preparing for the upcoming wildfire season by using a new map that will show active and recent wildfires in the western United States.

SFD hopes to use a map from the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WCFA) as a resource during wildfire season. Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer wants to use the map as a way to fight fires more efficiently and keep people safe.

“This way, people can get a little more heads up on exactly what’s going on, where the fire permitter is, and where the fire is going so they can make better plans," he said.

The WCFA map uses real-time 911 dispatch call data from PulsePoint while another national service provides ongoing wildfire location and boundary data.

Schaeffersaid this is the sort of project SFD has been waiting for since 2020.

"This is a project the Western Fire Chiefs, which is inclusive of the city of Spokane, has been working on and, as an organizational priority, enables our community to be prepared and adaptive to wildland fire," he said.

On the map, fire boundaries are shown in red, orange, and brown. The colors represent active fire burning from the past 12, 24, and 24 plus hours respectively.

The map is also designed for cell phones and is built to load quickly. It allows the user to identify their location in relation to a wildfire. Shaeffer said other enhancements like fire weather and behavior predictions, alerts and evacuation routing will be coming soon.

The map is currently available to the public at no charge. If you want to access the map, you can do so here.

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