Editor's Desk

New map will show fire calls

Posted by: John Beck

Friday, April 4, 2008 10:00 AM

Starting this coming Tuesday, we'll be running a map of Champaign-Urbana that shows fire calls for the preceding week.

The map will be on page 2 of the paper. Eventually, we hope to get the map on our Web site as well.

Different symbols on the map will show the locations of working fires, ambulance calls, medical calls and fire alarms.

We used to run a text listing of fire calls for C-U and some area towns in the paper. The fire departments sent us the calls by fax, and our staff typed them into our computer system. It was a lot of work and the format was inconvenient for readers, and we stopped doing it several years ago.

Now we're able to get the calls in an electronic file and create the map using mapping software. METCAD, the dispatch agency for Champaign County, as well as the Champaign and Urbana fire departments, are cooperating in the effort.

We think the map will be a good service to readers. Presenting the fire calls in visual form, as we now do with our burglary map in the Monday paper, lets readers perceive the information in an entirely different way than in a text list. Let us know what you think.

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