A NEW software system developed by Ballarat's Peter McMahon not only has the potential to revolutionise the way emergency services respond to incidents, but also save lives.

Mr McMahon, a sub-station officer and firefighter at Melbourne Airport, is the brains behind the system which has now been adopted in all trucks at the airport, and has attracted interest from other authorities.

Dubbed a "pre-incident planning package" the computer program allows firefighters to see where the nearest available water sources are at the airport, the floor plans of terminals, and what hazardous materials might be stored inside buildings.

"It assists responding crews to know what they are responding to," Mr McMahon said.

"They will come to a building and know what exactly is in that building. It's live information - they have got access to it through touch screens.

"It's all about safety, and potentially this could save lives."

The system will now be rolled out across all of Australia's airports, with software giant Microsoft also interested.

For his efforts Mr McMahon was recently presented with a Chairman's Award for Professional Excellence by Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese in Canberra.

Mr McMahon said fire-fighters at Melbourne airport were kept busy responding to incidents.

"Because we are not a well-advertised fire service, nobody really knows what we do, and no-one really wants to think we are there just in case a plane crashes," he said.

"We get fuel spills on the aircraft, we get grass fires, we get building fires, we get hazmat incidents."