Police officers and firefighters responding to emergencies at schools in Bloom Township have a new high-tech tool.

That's because 39 schools in eight school districts in the township are linked to Rapid Responder, a computer software program that consolidates information crucial during an emergency.

That includes important phone numbers, emergency preparedness plans created by schools and local officials, floor plans, fire hydrant sites and three-dimensional aerial and interior photos of the buildings and specific rooms in them, said Jim Finnell, CEO and president of Seattle-based Prepared Response, the company that created the program.

School administrators, police, fire and emergency personnel are able to access that information via a secure Web site, so it can be accessed from anywhere, even on scene via a laptop, he said. The information also could be downloaded onto a computer or a USB flash drive, he said.

"It basically catalogs each of the campuses from a first responder's point of view," Finnell said. "The goal is to provide first responders everything they would need to know about that campus if they were responding to an emergency."

The program was paid for by a 2007 $450,000 federal Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools grant secured by Bloom Township High School District 206, said Mark Sheahan, the district's assistant superintendent of business affairs.

The grant paid for the program, training and safety supplies for District 206, Chicago Heights School District 170, Brookwood School District 167, Ford Heights School District 169, Community Consolidated School District 168, Sandridge School District 172, Steger School District 194 and Special Education Joint Agreement School District 802, Sheahan said. The leftover $50,000 "picked up" assistant principals' salaries, he said.

These are the first school districts in Illinois to be using this system, joining almost 3,000 schools nationwide, Finnell said.

Sheahan said the program was chosen as part of the school districts' security upgrade plans.

"It will make our schools safer," Sheahan said.

District 170 Supt. Thomas Amadio agreed.

"It's a tremendous asset," Amadio said. "It came at the right time. ... In light of all the things that have happened in schools with security, you can't put a price tag on it. You have to be prepared."

The program has been up and running since September, and it hasn't had to be used yet, but local emergency personnel are ready to use it, Chicago Heights Fire Chief Tom Martello said.

He said all firefighters and paramedics have access to the software, which will help them handle future situations.

It's "a lot more tools in the toolbox, a lot more resources," Martello said. "It allows us to know where critical points are within the building for electric shut-offs and gas shut-offs, that type of thing."

It's also a way to quickly create a plan of action, Martello said.

"If we have a fire, or let's say a haz-mat release in one of the (chemistry) labs or anything of that nature, we are able to quickly identify those locations, where they are in the building and adapt (or) change emergency evacuations appropriately and adapt (or) change response to the needs in those immediate areas," Martello said.

"Many times we go into a situation or scenario kind of blind; this affords us more of a vision of what we may encounter," Martello said.

He said the program will be updated to reflect changes at the schools. Each district will handle future changes, Sheahan said.

Martello said he hopes private schools and local colleges eventually sign on to the program.