I am visiting General Santos City for some research but, unexpectedly, we completed our tasks much earlier. I had lots of time to kill, and reached to a local university (Notre Dame of Dadiangas) and offered to conduct a workshop on FOSS/Participatory Mapping for their community. Unfortunately, because of the short notice, and their other commitments they were unable to accommodate the request.

Diligent RAs made quick work of our tasks

Two blocks down from the university, is the headquarters of the city’s Fire Department, and I decided to drop by, to say hello, hoping for some chit-chat, and maybe some data as well. > > General Santos City’s Fire Department https://osm.org/go/4sJFDJKXl?m=

Luckily, not only did were they willing to chat, they were even willing to work and map their assets - pronto!

SFO2 Allan Rey Imperio, operations branch chief, (center, right photo) discussing some details with fellow fire fighters during our instant map jam.

That same afternoon, we got to complete the map of their fire hydrant network, including the location of auxiliary companies in General Santos City : > > The General Santos City Fire-fighting Assets map. Left, before our map jam. Right, our output that afternoon.

After jamming with them, they invited me to join a planned field inspection for the following morning. I willingly accepted, and offered to demonstrate how Mapillary works, and how they may utilize them in their work flow. > > Searching for ~~Nemo~~ hydrants. Their inventory report include a description of the location, but they’re not what we saw on the ground - weed covered hydrants, missing markers, or buried in concrete! Also, we had problems finding street names, and other basic information, so we had to stop a few times, asking directions from local residents.

We collected imagery using Mapillary, and used them to tag the hydrants we found.

As for me, well, I got to ride a fire truck for the first time - and even got to don a firefighter’s helmet. :grinning: > > Six thumbs up for a productive morning with the local smoke-eaters. :fire_engine: :man_firefighter: :woman_firefighter:

Kudos to the friendly and enthusiastic crew of the General Santos City Fire Office.

reposted from MapAmore’s Events repo