Websites and Member Systems for Fire and EMS
I've spent 29 years in the fire service. I build the systems it runs on.
WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO
The Chief of IT at a Class 1 Department
I am Clint Sanchez, Chief of Information and Technology for the Baton Rouge Fire Department, an ISO Class 1 agency. Twenty-nine years, and it started riding trucks. Before IT I was Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention, and a Fire Inspector before that.
BlakSheep Creative builds for fire, EMS and public safety because it is the job I go to when I am not building. You are not explaining shift schedules, SOGs or why the roster matters to somebody who has never seen a station.
PROOF OF WORK
Most Agencies Stop at the Website
The website is the easy half. The hard half is everything behind the login: the SOGs nobody can find, the leave request that is still a paper form, five years of memos living in somebody’s inbox.
Here is the system I run for my own department.
- 744 member accounts, replacing shared logins and station workarounds
- 367 internal documents, replacing binders and shared drives
- 332 memos indexed by year, replacing email chains nobody could search
- 106 operational forms, replacing paper leave slips, AARs and equipment receipts
- 11 PDF templates with signatures, replacing print, sign, scan, re-file
- 6 SOG sections, searchable, replacing a binder on a shelf at headquarters
After Action Reviews. District chief evaluations. Special ops applications. Nuisance address reports. If a member fills it out, it is a form in the system, and it routes itself.
First Due named this work with their Product Innovator Award at UNIFY 2024. First Due builds the software a large part of the fire service runs on, so the recognition came from inside the industry rather than from a marketing panel.
THE BUILD
Three Problems, One Department
Most departments come to us for one of these. There is no requirement to take all three, and no package that forces it.
The public site is what residents, the parish council and your next recruit class actually see. The member side is everything behind the login, built for someone on shift rather than someone at a desk. Identity and media covers the patches, apparatus livery and campaigns that carry real weight in this service.
WHAT YOU GET
What Comes With a Fire or EMS Build
Standard on every fire, EMS and public safety build we do.
Recruitment That Works
Application intake, hiring steps and requirements laid out, so a candidate does not have to call to ask.
Searchable SOGs
Every guideline indexed and searchable, instead of a binder at headquarters and a PDF nobody opens.
Forms That Route Themselves
Leave requests, After Action Reviews, equipment receipts and evaluations, with signatures and routing built in.
Training Records and Tutorials
Certifications, hours and how-to material where members can actually find them.
Built for 0300
Works on a station PC and on a phone in the bay, for someone who did not build it and has no time to learn it.
Accessible and Compliant
Legible against its background, keyboard navigable, properly labeled. Public agencies get held to this standard.
YOU OWN THE ASSET
Why Departments Build With Us
Around twenty departments and first-responder organizations, career and volunteer, plus EMS, search and rescue, locals, foundations, memorials and peer support programs.
Most of it arrived by referral, inside a community that checks who it hires. You work directly with the owner, you get a firm price before the work starts, and you own everything when it is finished.
STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Fire Department Website Questions, Answered
What chiefs and administrators ask before starting a build.
Both. Volunteer and combination departments often have the worst paperwork problem and the smallest budget, so we scope smaller and start with whatever hurts most. Pointe Coupee Fire Protection District 4 and Independence Volunteer Fire Department are both on this list.
Every build is priced per project, because a five page public site and a full member system are not the same job. You get a firm number before any work starts, and it only moves if the scope moves. If it is easier on a budget cycle, we run monthly plans as well.
Start wherever it hurts. Most departments come to us for one of the three. Plenty of them run the public site for a year before touching anything behind the login.
Yes. That is the entire point of the member side. Public content stays public, and everything else sits behind a login with accounts, ranks and permissions that match how your department is actually organized.
A public site is typically a few weeks once we have your content. A member system depends on how many forms and documents are coming across and what shape they are in. We tell you the honest number before you commit, not after.
Yes, and they should. Burn bans, closures, personnel changes, meeting minutes and job postings are all things your staff changes themselves. No support ticket, no hourly charge.
Yes. We are in Denham Springs and a good deal of our work is in Louisiana, but we build for departments and first-responder organizations anywhere. GMW Fire Protection is in Alaska.
We are used to public-sector timelines and can provide quotes, scopes and documentation in the format your parish, city or grant program needs. Tell us what the process requires and we will work inside it.
Tell Me What Is Still on Paper
That is the whole first call. No deck, no discovery packet. If your SOGs are in a binder or your leave slips get printed and signed, I have fixed that exact thing at my own department.
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