SEATTLE -- When a teenager walked into a Spokane high school this week with a loaded handgun, the authorities were able to tap into a new high-tech tool that helped them quickly lessen the risks to students and staff.

Photos from inside and outside Lewis and Clark High School helped police get different views of the scene. Floor plans distributed to SWAT team members showed the placement of windows and doors, even revealing a second door into the room where the teen was. The energy company, Avista Corp., was able to get information to quickly shut off the natural gas, because the student was holed up in a chemistry lab. And the fire department was able to view a list of chemicals in the building.

It was all thanks to a digital mapping program called Rapid Responder that provides building blueprints, photographs, evacuation plans, even lists of hazardous materials - all with just a few keystrokes on a computer.

"The program worked extremely well," said Joe Madsen, director of safety and risk management for Spokane Public Schools.

It was shortly after 11 a.m. Monday when a 16-year-old junior at Lewis and Clark walked into a classroom, told a teacher and several students to leave and fired one round from a 9mm semiautomatic handgun into a cabinet.

Police officers spent an hour and 20 minutes talking with the student, Sean Fitzpatrick. But when he pointed the handgun at officers, he was shot in the jaw, stomach and arm. He remained hospitalized in serious condition Friday, said Dick Cottam, Spokane police spokesman.

The mapping technology used to help clear the building of some 2,000 students and staff has applications in other emergencies, from fires and earthquakes to medical crises and hazardous material spills. The data can be accessed wirelessly, or downloaded onto computer hard drives.

"It's really an investment of time at the front end to provide that sense of security and a positive response in the event of an emergency," said Gary Kipp, executive director, Association of Washington School Principals.

The Legislature this year approved funding for the first phase of the effort to map high schools statewide.

The Seattle company behind it, Prepared Response, is being paid $3.5 million to create such mapping databases for all the state's approximately 450 high schools. It expects to complete the project by January 2005.

Data include locations of security systems, shutoffs for utilities, and plenty of photos - including rooftops, gymnasiums, libraries, auditoriums and other gathering places. The database also includes phone numbers and emergency plans.

"We basically put ourselves in the place of the first responder," said Jim Finnell, Prepared Response CEO. "We try to save them as much time as possible."

The company, founded three years ago, has also mapped commercial buildings, water treatment plants - even a Navy ship based in Bremerton, he said.

"The potential marketplace is enormous," Finnell said, which includes embassies, industrial plants, cruise ships and airplanes.

The original version of the program arose after officials from Pierce County visited Columbine High School in Colorado after the 1999 shootings there. Two students killed 12 other students and a teacher before committing suicide.

To prepare for such an emergency locally, the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management teamed with the county's Geographic Information Systems Department to develop a better way to provide information quickly to emergency responders, said Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer, who was among those who traveled to Columbine.

Madsen, with the Spokane school district, emphasized it's only one more tool for emergency workers. Just the process of bringing various agencies to contribute all the data and to make plans goes far toward handling emergencies smoothly, he said.