By Michael Cayes
Mooring Tech, Inc.
This article is provided by Mooring Tech, Inc. and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of FireRescue1.
Hollywood takes a lot of liberties. We’re all familiar with this scene; responding to a blazing fire, a group of firefighters make their way into the building. They fight their way through thick smoke that obscures their vision almost entirely. Suddenly, a beam falls or the floor gives out! In spite of these obstacles, the team usually makes it to the people trapped in the nick of time.
This isn’t as much of an exaggeration as it would seem. Every call brings a unique set of dangers, with no way of knowing what those dangers are until the crew is in the thick of it. Fire crews put their lives on the line to pull people out of homes and buildings daily. In natural disaster and attack situations, which seem to be more and more frequent, they are the first on the scene heading into the wreckage. It’s all in a day’s work, as the gray hair of their families and friends can attest. Up until recently, there was very little technology targeted towards making it easier to find people that needed rescue. Good eyesight and call-and-response were the most reliable methods humans had for centuries. Thousands of people owe their lives to those techniques, but it may have been possible to save thousands more with better technology.
What if it didn’t always have to be that way? What if fire and rescue teams could even the playing field against fires and natural disasters? These are the questions that precipitated a new wave of GPS technologies that aid in the location of people and essential equipment. By combining thermal, biometric, and location systems, the future holds a wealth of solutions that will make it easier and faster to get to people who are trapped, unconscious, or otherwise in need of assistance. Additionally, these systems allow team members who remain outside of a structure to track the movement of their teammates within the structure from a portable device such as a rugged tablet. When the smoke and thick concrete make it difficult to keep either a visual or radio line on the man inside, GIS mapping can take over and reveal compromised areas of flooring.
Other programs currently in development focus on equipment tracking and monitoring. In Euless Texas, the Public Works Department and the Fire Department worked together to create a real-time map in the program, “Firehouse”. In this program, users can log coordinates of fire hydrants, as well as the manufacture date of all hydrants. From there, firefighters can use the data to schedule routine maintenance on hydrants and ensure that they are up to code when an emergency does occur. “Firehouse” is compatible with devices that run Windows 8, and it is available on desktop and mobile platforms.
These recently-developed GPS programs are making the process of firefighting and rescue more efficient, and they are making it easier to stay on top of administrative duties in downtime. Together with products like rugged tablets and laptops, innovative new programs are making response times faster and saving lives every day.