Agent-based simulation of a fire department’s response to emergency incidents: an updated model

Abstract

A modelling and simulation (M&S) approach was earlier developed, following statistical analysis of the emergency incident database of the Vaughan Fire & Rescue Service covering eight years of consecutive incident records from January 2009 to December 2016. The M&S framework, which could potentially be replicated for fire departments across Canada, involved two different simulation models running on separate platforms: (i) an Incident Generation Engine, which simulates the ‘arrival’ of emergency incidents, and (ii) a Response Simulation Model. The current report covers only an update of the Response Simulation Model, an agent-based model developed using AnyLogic. Two issues associated with the earlier Response Simulation Model have specifically been addressed and resolved by the updated model. We report on findings from our simulation experiments based on the updated model.