The Village of Wheeling fire department created fire districts for the purpose of sectioning off the village so that village firefighters would have a better idea where an incident was located and what station would be the closest for response. The districts were sectioned off by neighborhood and each one was given a four digit reference code. The fire department then created maps of each district showing the streets that were located within each one. While the maps were effective at first, they eventually became outdated due to changes in the village. The fire department asked the GIS Specialist to create an updated Fire District Map Book that would also include features not available in the previous version.

Using GIS, a new map book was created to meet the fire departments specifications. The two new items requested to be added to the map book were fire hydrant locations and village addresses. The fire department went out and marked the location of each hydrant within the village so that the exact locations could be added. With the fire hydrant locations known, the firefighters would not have to waste time locating a hydrant when responding to an incident. With the addresses displayed, the fire department can easily locate the location of an incident, especially in the case of an apartment complex where the addresses are now broken down by building allowing the fire department to respond to the correct building. In addition to the hydrant locations and the addresses, the street names and the parcels were updated reflecting the changes to the village since the last map book was created. Each map book consists of individual pages that can be replaced individually in case of an update or if a page is lost or destroyed.

With the completion of the updated fire district map books and the placement of them within their vehicles, the fire department can now respond more efficiently and more effectively to an incident within the village.