At Tablet Command, we believe information should move as fast as your response. That’s why we developed Incident Sharing- a feature designed to enhance situational awareness and coordination across agencies. It’s built to keep everyone aligned- before, during, and after the call.

When departments merge, unifying tactics can be one of the hardest parts. That was the challenge facing Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority- a Washington agency responsible for more than 260,000 residents and 120 square miles of coverage, built through multiple consolidations.

Legacy vs. Modern Response

Tablet Command supports crews and command staff throughout every stage of a response- from the moment a call is dispatched to the final documentation of an incident. Here are ten operational advantages that show how.

Yes? Great! Here’s why…

In addition to cost sharing, standardized communications and closest unit dispatching, departments sharing a computer aided dispatch (CAD) system with neighboring agencies are able to share a mobile response and incident management software like Tablet Command.

Using  iPads and Smartphones, this mobile solution supports every aspect of emergency response including notification, resource status in CAD, navigation, access to pre-plans, hydrant locations and incident management. It also allows any authenticated user to see incident management activity in real time.

Over the last several months we've been inundated by news of major emergencies around our country and beyond. Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey have been the most prominent progeny of the Atlantic hurricane assembly line and they left total disaster in their wake. Regrettably, many large-scale emergency situations are not the results of natural events but are created by the actions of people. Over and over again, we see tragedies unfold in small towns and large cities alike with the continuing epidemic of active shooter incidents.

Since Sunday, the Tablet Command team has been watching for updates and had a difficult time locating maps that displayed the hotspots of the fire and active fire perimeters. We found that the information on other maps was not complete or useful. We decided to make our own with one of the great tools that we use frequently.


Esri provides some excellent tools and one of those tools, ArcGIS Online is used by Tablet Command to support our customers access to agency GIS information. ArcGIS Online is a great way for any agency to create custom web maps with dynamic data within a matter of minutes. We created this web map with Esri ArcGIS Online in about 20 minutes. We have been using it so much that we decided that we should share it with everyone.

It continues to be VERY busy at work these days. I responded to 7 legitimate working fires for the month of May. And three of those have been two alarm fires. It’s been a really crazy run!

Two things happened last week in my life as a Fire Captain that simply could not have happened a generation ago.

Here’s a funny fact about entrepreneurs: The most common reason people start businesses is to avoid working for others.