Orange Beach, Ala. - (OBA) - As the summer season is in full swing, the Orange Beach Fire Department is using two high-tech programs that will help firefighters and those who need their help.

One will utilize QR codes to give family members directions to where city ambulance crews are taking loved ones for further treatment and speeding up the process to get them to hospitals quicker.

“It speeds things up a lot and obviously, that’s important,” Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Smith said. “Historically, we’ve always had issues with trying to get families of patients to hospital destinations. It got magnified a little bit when we started transporting because used to, we’d load the patient in the MedStar ambulance and we could stand there and tell the family. The only rush was the family wanting to get out.”

Fire Chief Mike Kimmerling praised Smith’s efforts on the cards during a May 16 city council meeting.

“They can scan it with their phone and it takes them right from where they are standing directly to the hospital on Google Maps,” Kimmerling said. “It’s a phenomenal thing that was done for community service and the safety of our public. Outstanding job.”

Help from other city staffers, Alissa Toussiant and Marc Anderson, brought the project to fruition.

“I called Marc Anderson and asked if he could build a QR code,” Smith said. “We gave him the addresses and he built a QR code for them. Alissa (Toussaint), who works with our public education stuff and she actually designed the card and we had it made.”

COMMUNITY CONNECT

The second piece of technology will also give firefighters information about homes and businesses they are responding too with a prompt from a computer as soon as the address is known. Citizens are encouraged to visit a website and fill out a form on information about their homes and can include pictures of pets even.

“They have to log in but it’s a pretty neat feature,” Smith said.

When a call comes from dispatch, firefighters immediately get detailed information about the address and building where they are headed. If you have signed up for the Community Connect service.

“On the IPads on the truck if we get dispatched to your house it shows up immediately,” Smith said. “It shows the driveway entrance, any pets and your contact information. Our guys will have all of that. If you have a lockbox code or something they can put that in there, a gate code or anything like that. As soon as the guys get in the fire truck, they have this on their location.”

Residents can sign up with Community Connect on the city’s website by clicking here.