Brookfield Fire Chief David Masirovits, left, and Capt. Nick Cresanto show one of Apple iPad Pros the department received in a grant award.

Brookfield Fire Chief David Masirovits, left, and Capt. Nick Cresanto show one of Apple iPad Pros the department received in a grant award.

Brookfield Fire Department has received four Apple iPad Pro tablet computers for use primarily in its ambulances.
The tablets were issued in a joint grant program by the Ohio Department of Public Safety and the Ohio Highway Patrol.
When the computers have been loaded with the appropriate software and firefighters are trained in their use, department members will be able to employ them at calls to obtain treatment authorizations and refusals, said Fire Chief David Masirovits, who wrote the grant with Capt. Nick Cresanto.
“Currently, we get your signature on a piece of paper, we come back here (to the fire station), we scan it, we have to attach it to the report, then we have to destroy the scan,” Masirovits said. “With these, you’ll be able to sign and it will go right into your report.”
“It also will allow the paramedics to do the reports outside of the fire house,” he said. “You’ll be able to start your report in the back of the ambulance, finish it on your way to the hospital or on your way back in. It’s going to save a lot of time, especially in the middle of the night. You don’t have to stay up the extra hour to do the report. You’re able to get some sleep, so it’s actually going to improve safety overall, too.”
The department received notification of the grant award on May 23, and firefighters picked them up in Columbus on June 13. The tablets are water-resistant and have shock-proof cases.promo
“Hopefully, within the year, we’re able to incorporate some of our fire software in it, too, and we’ll be able to take refusals of care at car accidents,” the chief said. “If there was somebody that got some smoke at a fire and doesn’t wish to be transported, we don’t have to call a second ambulance in just to do a refusal. We’ll be able to do it. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do fire reporting as well and, in the future, take pictures and incorporate those into the reports, also. I think that our options are pretty much limitless. We’ll be able to fulfill all of the fields of a reporting system by being mobile.”
The department has mobile data terminal computers in its trucks and ambulance, but they are specifically designed for communication with 911 dispatchers, he said.