Google Earth kml files of Westchester Fire Info

[Monty 35]

I've been somewhat interested by GIS for some years as a rank amateur. My interest was piqued recently by a couple of articles about Pictometry. Most counties in NY have a blanket agreement but not Westchester. It seems like Google Earth on steroids This got me thinking that a while back I'd seen on http://westchestergov.com some GIS info.

So with some time to kill (doesn't often happen), I was able to take some of the files from there and create these files for Google Earth. They show the district boundaries (for some reason, they show several boundaries within a given fire district in several cases), the name of the district's and the firehouses.

I think at one point someone was asking about firehouse addresses - from this data the zip has a csv file and a .dbf file (the .dbf is part of the GIS file). Looking at the data some of it is pretty old mind you.

I was looking to see if I could get utilities and hydrants but I don't see that available on the internet. Anyway, if someone else wants to try importing some of the other GIS information available, then this is pretty much the steps I went through:

I got a lot of info from http://freegeographytools.com/2007/convert...inless-approach

From http://avce00.maptools.org/avce00/ get the avce00 tool

From http://fwtools.maptools.org/ get the FWTools program

From http://freegeographytools.com/upfiles/ArcINFO2Shape.zip get ArcInfo2Shape

From http://www.mapwindow.org/download.php download map window

From http://www.zonums.com/shp2kml.html get shp2kml

Download e00 file (need to copy link and remove anonymous from link (eg change ftp://ftp.westchestergov.com/Anonymous/GI...ts/wcfirdst.zip to ftp://ftp.westchestergov.com/GISData/Districts/wcfirdst.zip)

run the avcimport tool: eg avcimport.exe wcfire.e00 firehouses

follow the instructions to run 'ArcInfo2Shape Gui' tool

Then in the MapWindow program, make sure under Plug-ins menu option that the GIS Tools is selected, then on the 'GIS Tools' menu select Vector->Reproject a Shape Tool

In the project to dialog box select:

Select Category as Geographic Coordinate Systems

Select Group as North America

Select Name as North American Datum 1983

If a second dialog box comes if it comes up as:

Select Category as Projected Coordinate Systems

Select Group as State Plane - NAD 1983 (Feet)

Select Name as NAD 1983 StatePlane New York East FIPS 3101 (Feet)

run shp2klm.exe, select the file created in MapWindow, go through (you can try different settings as you feel like it and see the effect), then save and/or open the kml file

That's all there is to it - actually probably a simpler way out there but it served my purpose.

WestchesterFire.zip

[Guest bibbles10504]

Those maps are awesome, I like how you can see the fire districts. Thanks!

[Oswegowind 17]

I have been playing around with the Yonkers GIS mapping system. I love it, and learn more everytime I play around. One night we had a couple of small fires and PSDEFM84 and I had the maps up and could see the properties, structures, hydrants, exposures, and all of that good stuff. Recently on the PD side we have had a few burglaries in the 1st precinct area...2 in about 45 minutes the other day. I was able to print out a GIS map zoomed in on area with properties highlighted to show proximity and forwarded it to the units working the job. It showed a common back yard area that was lined with trees. In one of those burglaries, the homeowner was actually in the shower and got out to find the condition...didn't see the suspects though.

[PC_420 28]

I've been playing with Google Earth for my own purporses at Putnam 911. I've used it for searches and GPS mapping on phones and landing zones. Over the last couple months I have inserted a ton of material. I have it available if anybody would like and I can e-mail it. Of course most of it centers around Putnam County and from what I can tell it can only be used by Google Earth. But also alot of information for Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Dutchess and Fairfield Counties. I'll give the list of info listed and mapped:

County/Town/Village Boundaries

Mile Markers for Taconic, I84, I684, and Palisades

Highway Departments

Dispatch Centers

Fire Departments

Ambulance Corps

Police Departments

MTA Train Stations and Tracks

City/Village/Town Halls

Schools

Senior Centers

Airports

Hospitals

Bridges

Traffic Circles

Fuel Stations

Parks

Lakes

Islands

Beaches

Military Installations