In an emergency, every second counts. That's part of the reason the New Canaan Fire Department has launched a new program aimed at collecting vital information about residents before something goes wrong.

“Community Connect is a community-facing portal that ties into our pre-planning and response database,” said Fire Chief Albe Bassett.

The online platform allows residents to input details about their homes including contact information, how many people live there, whether there are pets, if anyone has mobility issues, floor plans and notes on how to access the property such as a gate code. It’s data that firefighters and paramedics can pull up while en route to a call.

Bassett showed News 12 how it works, using an address for a town-owned property, on the iPads that each apparatus have.

“If an incident comes in, an address pops up and it will show a dashboard. The firefighters will touch the dashboard and open up what we call the tiles, and anything the homeowner put in would show up on a tile,” Bassett explained.

Getting that critical information ahead of time allows emergency responders to be more efficient. “It changes our decision making in how we're going to approach an emergency once we arrive on scene,” Bassett said.

According to Community Connect, the data is protected by “bank level encryption and security.”

“You can put as much information about your property or as little information about your property into the system,” Bassett told News 12.

He said so far, about 50 people have signed up, but the department is hoping for as many as possible. The portal is free and easy to use, Bassett said.

Residential property owners and renters can create an account here.

The plan is to expand Community Connect to businesses this summer.

New Canaan is the second fire department in the state to use Community Connect, according to Bassett. Westport launched the program six months ago, which Fire Chief Nick Marsan said has been very helpful in allowing crews to respond in a targeted and efficient manner. About 500 people have signed up and the town continues to promote it, according to Marsan.