Minimizing Response Time with Optimal Fire Station Allocation

Abstract

Quick response time in emergency situation is critical to protect human lives. In the fast-growing cities, fire departments can fall behind the standard response time due to cities’ expansion. This research focuses on ways to improve the response time of a city’s emergency situation. A Non-linear Programming model is used to determine the locations of fire stations, so that they can cover the maximum number of residents, in terms of the geographical area and population. The model is applied to the city of Kingsville, Texas to check the practicability. The results of the research indicate that optimized locations make population coverage increment up to 15% and geographic coverage increment up to 21% with two fire stations. With three fire stations including a newly added fire station, the population coverage goes up to 48% increment and the geographic coverage increased up to 71%, which covers 88% of total city population.