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Cedar Hill to launch Community Connect June 1 to speed emergency response
Summary
Fire Chief Mike Harrison and Inspector Chris Holcomb presented 'Community Connect,' a 1st Due-backed online profile system launching June 1 that will let residents and businesses share gate codes, medical needs, floor plans and other details to help dispatch and crews respond faster.
Fire Chief Mike Harrison and Inspector Chris Holcomb told the Cedar Hill City Council on May 26 that the fire department will officially launch Community Connect on June 1, a module of the 1st Due platform that lets residents and businesses supply emergency-response information to dispatch and mobile crews.
"It is our Community Connect program," Chief Harrison said in the briefing, describing the purchase of the 1st Due suite and the department’s intent to centralize training, asset and preplanning data. Chris Holcomb, the department’s newly introduced inspector who will run the program, said the service is "a free, secure online program for Cedar Hill residents and businesses." He said profiles can include occupant counts, medical needs, mobility or sensory issues, pet and livestock notes, floor plans and gate or keyless-entry codes so responders arrive better prepared.
Staff demonstrated that Community Connect will integrate with the 1st Due dashboard used by dispatch so that information is accessible on mobile tablets in engines and medic units during EMS calls, structure fires, welfare checks and evacuations. The department described data protections as "bank-level security" and said access is limited to authorized fire-department users and generally viewed only during emergencies.
The presenters said the profile system will also include service tabs for smoke-detector checks and a planned residential inspection tab; businesses can provide technical details such as hazardous materials inventories and sprinkler or alarm systems to support preplanning. Chief Harrison and staff urged residents and businesses to create profiles and to share the program’s QR-code links that will be distributed citywide.
