The New York Fire Department is using a tool called FireCast to predict which buildings are most likely to have fires. The software applies an algorithm from five city agencies, taking into account as many as 60 different risk factors—not only obvious ones, such as a building’s age, but also whether it was in the middle of foreclosure proceedings or had active tax liens. It’s not a big leap to see why a property’s financial plight could make it a bigger fire risk but, until now, fire departments had no formal way of knowing such things
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