Ottawa Fire Services
Ottawa Fire Services

District Knowledge for the Modern Firehouse

An interactive training tool that builds street-level preparedness, one drill at a time.

Scroll
02 / 08
The Problem

District knowledge has no system

📡
Reliance on Google Maps
Phone mounts in fire trucks. Eyes off the road, reaction time cut, and no fallback when signal drops. Crews are following a GPS. Not driving.
🔄
Station Transfers
Firefighters rotate stations roughly every 5 years. When they do, their district knowledge resets to nothing, and there's no structured way to build it back.
📕
The Map Book is Gone
The tradition of building your own map book has vanished. Today, every book has been replaced with an iPad, but nothing filled the knowledge gap that came with it.
📊
Knowledge Has No Metric
No way for leadership to know who knows their district. No data, no standard, no accountability.
03 / 08
The Solution

Meet the District Knowledge Tool

Street Drill — District 1 selected with station picker and map
Interactive map-based street drillsTap the map to locate each street. Accuracy measured in metres.
9 districts, 45+ stationsEvery corner of Ottawa covered, urban and rural.
3 difficulty levelsRookie (main arteries), Crew (every street), Senior Man (1st + 2nd due).
Multiplayer crew trainingUp to 10 players. Compete head-to-head or on teams at the kitchen table.
Cross-street hint systemStuck? Reveal intersecting streets for a point cost.
Instant scoring & feedbackStar ratings, distance accuracy, and personal bests. All saved.
04 / 08
How It Works

Four steps. Five minutes.

1
Pick Your District
Choose from 9 districts and 45+ stations across Ottawa.
2
Start a Drill
Set difficulty, pick question count, and go.
3
Find the Streets
Tap where you think each street is on the map.
4
Get Scored
Accuracy in metres. Stars earned. Progress saved to your profile.
Select your district
Pick difficulty on mobile
5 star result — 8 metres
Drill summary — 86% accuracy
05 / 08
The Data

Individual progress.
Department leaderboards.
Street-level mastery tracking.

0
Stations Covered
0
Districts Mapped
0
Difficulty Levels
Personal dashboard — My Stats sidebar
Department dashboard — leaderboard sidebar
06 / 08
Accountability

Trackable, actionable data
that shows improvement

Chief's Desk — Department Insights dashboard
Who's drilling and who isn't. Participation tracking across every station.
Score trends over time. See if the department is improving week over week.
Knowledge gaps by station. Know exactly which streets need more work.
Difficulty breakdown. Rookie, Crew, Senior Man — see where the department stands.
07 / 08
iPad Ready

Right at Home on the Station iPad

Street drill result on iPad
Station tooltip on iPad
All 9 districts on iPad
Works in Safari. No app install required.
Add to Home Screen in a couple taps for a native app feel.
Touch-optimized map interaction.
Any device with a browser: iPad, iPhone, desktop.

Ready to modernize
district knowledge?

✓
Zero installation. Runs in any browser
✓
Deployed and live today
✓
Ready for department-wide rollout
Try It Now →
Not a sales pitch
I built this on my own time as a passion project to help Ottawa firefighters know their streets. District knowledge matters, and firefighters deserve a real tool to build it.
Free for the department. No strings attached.
D. Portner