Testimonials

On this page, you'll find a selection of the many kind words said about Fire Planning Associates and our innovative Blazemark system.

If you have something you'd like to say yourself, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email on the contact page, and let us know if we can use your words on this page.

Philadelphia FD Letter of Thanks

The City of Philadelphia Fire Department thanks our own Greg Jakubowski.

Greg recently presented "Investigating Fire in Sprinklered Buildings" at the 41st Annual Philadelphia Fire Department Fire Safety & Education Seminar.

Mississippi State Fire Academy Training

May, 2009

"Just wanted say that we had a great class in Fire Behavior in Single Family Residences, and Comprehensive Fire Approach in Commercial Structures taught here in Mississippi. Greg Jakubowski was terrific. He brings combat fire suppression knowledge, fire protection knowledge, and the ability as a writer and instructor together. His experiences worked to enhance the true understanding, especially having worked and/or talked to individuals who were involved in some of the referenced incidents. It has been truly an honor for the Fire Academy in Mississippi to have him with us these last few days."

Marshall C. Robinson, Jr
Mississippi - NFA Program Manager
Mississippi State Fire Academy

News-Press Release UICDS

Dept. of Homeland Security-Unified Incident Command Decision Support

For Immediate Release:

Fire Planning Associate's, Inc., Blazemark Software
Integral To The Success Of Recent UICDS Information Sharing Demonstration

Washington Crossing, PA, April 2009: Pre-Incident planning technology developed by Fire Planning Associates, Inc played a critical role in the April 29th demonstration conducted at the Virginia Emergency Operations Center in Richmond, VA. Along with 22 other information technology providers, Fire Planning Associates' Blazemark internet-based software tool provided emergency responder access to preplans for different incident scenarios.

Mr. Bart Krauss, President of Fire Planning Associates, stated "we were proud to be chosen as one of the key participants in this demonstration and applaud the initiative of the Department of Homeland Security in creating the Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) project and in conducting this key pilot demonstration in conjunction with the Virginia Emergency Center Operations."

Chip Mahoney, SAIC Project Manager for UICDS, said "The UICDS prototype demonstration illustrated how a wide variety of applications can share information through a diverse set of interfaces, data formats and networks using non-proprietary, open standards. From long-standing applications like computer-aided dispatch and asset management to more recent video surveillance and detection technologies to innovative new situational awareness tools, the UICDS Architecture Specification accommodates the information exchanges emergency managers and responders need to help save lives, protect property, and minimize economic loss."

UICDS is a middleware foundation that enables commercial and government incident management technologies to share information and support decisions for the National Response Framework and National Incident Management to prevent, protect, respond, and recover from natural, technological, and terrorist events. UICDS is sponsored by the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and is being executed through a contract with prime contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE:SAI].

Fire Planning Associates, with offices in Bucks County, PA, and New York City, are the designers and developers of Blazemark preplans assisting emergency response and facility management personnel with quickly developing an incident action plan, maximizing firefighter effectiveness and safety and aiding in fire investigation. Blazemark also plays a critical role in helping corporations deal with emergencies as the front end to their business continuity plans and is used by major corporations on a global basis.

For More Information Contact:
Mr. Bart Krauss - President or Mr. Greg Jakubowski, Vice President, CSP, FSFPE
Address P.O. Box 446, Washington Crossing, PA., 18977
Phone number: 215-321-6260
Email

Incident Management Training and Tabletop Drill for The Home Care Network, Wayne, PA

Incident Management Training, Updating of Emergency Response Procedures and Tabletop Drill Conducted for The Home Care Network, Wayne, PA.

"I think everyone was happy and impressed with the training. I had numerous positive comments on the simplicity of utilizing IMS. It also had people looking at their particular areas...especially the IT department.

Thanks for your hard work on this ... it opened some eyes."

AND

"Thanks for getting us the report so quickly...

I also wanted to recognize you and Tom for the fine work that you did. The management staff was impressed with your ability to make the table top exercise realistic. The management and staff took the exercise seriously and all the feedback was extremely positive!

Thanks again for a job well done!"

Thomas D. Brown RPh, MBA
Director - Jefferson Home Infusion Service

Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder - www.firefighterclosecalls.com

"Going to a building fire without it being properly preplanned is like expecting your favorite pro football team to win without studying the other team...or expecting soldiers to win a war without knowing their adversary. Frank Brannigan called it, "knowing our enemy."

It's 2008. How can any FD possibly state they "take care" of their fire fighters and are concerned for their safety without an effective preplan system so those fire fighters know .. ahead of time .. what they are dealing with?

Why go in blind? Preplanning helps minimize that risk.

As far as pre-planning, as far as I am concerned, the BEST in the business is Greg Jakubowski, who runs a company with services at varied levels - from the software to coming to a town and doing the pre-plans."

Building Information Model

Press Release-Building Information Model

Building Information Models in New York City - A New Group is Formed

/PRZOOM - Newswire/ - New York City building industry professionals begin a formal organization of people interested in learning more about BIM (Building Information Models), a powerful new software tool set that radically alters business processes.


Chicago, IL, United States, 05/23/2008 - The kick-off meeting of New York City's ad hoc BIM interest group and buildingSMART alliance(tm) members would have been sold out if tickets were sold. More than 40 people registered to attend the meeting at Parsons Binckerhoff's Manhattan offices' 40-person conference room. Others from around the country joined the meeting on the web.

Presentations on buildingSMART Alliance(tm) initiatives, case studies clearly outlining benefits and a highly informed discussion signaled that New York City is taking a leadership role in outlining the societal and business benefits of BIM (Building Information Models) and the processes it enables.

With buildingSMART Alliance Executive(tm) Director, Deke Smith, FAIA phoning in from a West Coast conference supported by the Alliance and members on a national web conference, the event demonstrated the use of collaborative tools that improve consensus decision making.

Highlights of the evening included the use of BIM in fire fighter training, road replacement and high rise design and documentation.

Stephen Thomson and James Vandezande and Rachel Arulraj all spoke at the presentation in Parsons Binkerhoff's New York City offices.

Mr. Stephen Thomson, AIA Principal of Thomson Architects PC, started the formal presentation with a personal overview of the buildingSMART Alliance based on the PowerPoint available at MeetUp.com

Rachel Arulraj, PhD, Director of Virtual Design and Construction, Parsons Brinckerhoff, explained how BIM animations detailed precise tasks for a large road section that was cost-effectively replaced. The clear visuals assisted the consensus decision making required to achieve the cost savings.

James Vandezande, AIA, Associate, Digital Design Manager, SOM, New York, showed a road map for phased BIM implementation, which requires process changes along with tool set updates. While the map was specific to the firm's goals, obvious financial benefits realized by SOM, it's colleagues and clients were presented.

Case studies of SOM's BIM projects on Manhattan high rises including Freedom Tower were used to illustrate clash detection benefits, communication improvements, schedule reduction and cost savings.

Paul Seletsky, AIA Digital Design Director for SOM New York, opened the discussions emphasizing the business process improvements possible with BIM.

The positive applications of BIM in fire safety and emergency response were pointed out in Barton Krauss' description of advanced pre-incident planning software. Krauss is president of Fire Planning Associates, Inc.

Hosney Abdelgelil, Project Controls Director, Hill International, Inc., New York, noted the productivity lost when design models and construction models are not exchanged properly.

Web participants included buildingSMART Alliance members such as Hector Torres, Igor Starkov and "BIG BIM little bim" author, Finith Jernigan, who were among those networking online while the live New York networking session was occurring in the Parson Binkerhoff conference center.

Hosney Abdelgelil, who organized the event with Diaa Elmaddah, PE, Project Manager for Parsons Binkerhoff, added that interoperability of models, insurance and legal issues will be main threads through future discussions.

The second gathering is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18 at 5:30 pm. A meeting place that can accommodate more than 40 people and large-scale web links are being arranged to reduce carbon foot print in creating a large network.

Co-Founder
BIM Education Co-op(tm)
BIMeducation.com

Board of Directors Member
Friends of Downtown - Chicago

New Hope Solebury School District

October, 2008 - Fire Planning Associates Completes Preplanning Effort for New Hope Solebury School District.

Fire Planning Associates recently completed preplans for each of the 4 schools - 2 elementary schools, the middle school and the high school - in the New Hope Solebury School District. The plans include drawings, annotated photographs, and other details of the facilities to provide local fire and police personnel the information they need to effectively respond to emergencies at the District's facilities. The preplan was developed in BLAZEMARK, Fire Planning Associates' proprietary web-based preplanning software. The preplanning effort was funded by the District, and the software was funded through the fire department in an innovative partnership. Plans are available on-line for neighboring mutual aid organizations who are also using BLAZEMARK.

"I am very happy with the final product and believe that this program will serve the district well in the future." Dave Hansel, Director of Operations, New Hope Solebury School District

Berwyn Fire Co.

Craig Peterson, Chief, Berwyn, PA., Fire Co.

Over the last calendar year I've used Blazemark preplans approximately six times. They allowed us to focus our operations on the appropriate building/facility areas and address the issues promptly. They've really been a big help and we look forward to expanding our pre-plan program in the coming months. The product has really come a long way since we initially became
involved over two years ago.

Enterprise Fire Co.

Chief, Enterprise Fire Co., Hatboro, PA.

The Pre Plan was put into action after a facility that cares for children on ventilators "had smoke showing on arrival". We had limited access in the parking lot and had difficulty positioning the Ladder Truck. Having the plans, diagrams with roof hatches, and a thorough review made a big difference.

This ended up being nothing more than a HVAC motor on the roof, put it certainly drove the point home of good pre planning.

Fire Rescue Magazine, Sep 2007

"Many new fire service products are introduced each year, but few stand out as innovative. One of the most important aspects in creating a good product: making it user-friendly. The people at Fire Planning Associates have achieved this with Blazemark, a new preplanning software program.

After testing Blazemark myself, I can report that the company's claims about the software aren't just hype. I took a predetermined data set and created a preplan using the software's easy plug-ins. Blazemark really works and it's definitely user-friendly."

(click to read the full review)