Fire Truck Response Times for the Town of Middleboro, Massachusetts

1. Select a town in Massachusetts with at least 3 fire stations (you can download these point locations from MassGIS)

2. Determine the area of the town that can be reached from the existing fire stations in 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes using the service areas tool (you may not be able to use this via the logistics services – it may have to be done via desktop and using the network in your data folder). Is there any area of town outside a 20 minute service time?

3. Imagine your town is considering closing one of the fire stations due to budget constraints. You can select which one will hypothetically be closed. Recalculate the new response times across the town from the remaining fire stations.

4. How do you interpret these response time changes? 

5. Consider the flaws and limitations of your analysis and suggest improvements.

The map on the left above shows all of the areas in Middleboro, Massachusetts that can be reached by a fire station within 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, and 15-20 minutes. The entire town can be reached within 20 minutes of time; however, only 25% of the town can be reached within 5 minutes. This is a concern because national stardard calls for fire trucks to repond within 5 minutes 90% of the time. Another major concern is that sudden cardiac arrest victims generally have only 6 minutes. With the current fire station locations, over 34% of the town would not be reached by a paramedic within 6 minutes of a cardiac arrest.

If the Town of Middleboro, Massachusets had to make budget cuts and eliminate one of the current fire stations, the North Fire Station would be the most logical one to eliminate. The South Fre Station, toward the bottom on the map, is essential to have because it provides service for all of South Middleboro. Without the South Fire Station, the Central Fire Station and the North Fire Station would be too far away to get to South Middleboro locations quickly. The Central Fire Station is essential because it is located near the center of Middleboro, and it is the main station with all of the equipment. Therefore, the North Fire Station would be the most logical one to cut, because it would have the least affect on response times.

The map on the right above shows all of the areas in Middleboro, Massachusetts that can be reached by the Central Fire Station and the South Fire Station within 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, and 15-20 minutes. The entire town can be reached within 20 minutes of time; however, only 16% of the town can be reached within 5 minutes. This is a concern because national stardard calls for fire trucks to repond within 5 minutes 90% of the time. Another major concern is that sudden cardiac arrest victims generally have only 6 minutes. With the only these two fire station locations, over 39% of the town would not be reached by a paramedic within 6 minutes of a cardiac arrest.

Limitations of both of the analysis would be the consideration of speed limits. The posted speed limits of the roads have been taken into consideration for this map; however, fire trucks typically drive faster than the posted speed limits. Therefore, the times of the fire trucks may be faster than what they are on this map.