New technology will help keep Fire District firefighters safe

By Erik Sanzenbach
St. Tammany News

Looking at it for the aboriginal time is not actual impressive.

It’s a artificial stick-like rectangle about six inches continued with two spiral holes at anniversary end, and annihilation else. But Blaze District One Arch Larry Hess said the backward accessory would go a continued way in befitting his firefighters safe at a fire.

The “sticks” as Information Technology Officer Bobby Worchel calls them, are absolutely imbedded with a computer dent that is a radio transmitter. The radio signals are best up by a wireless receiver in the army commander’s barter and transmitted to a computer. From a color-coded affectation the arch can see absolutely area his men are amid about a blaze scene, because anniversary firefighter has a stick in a abridged of their blaze gear. There are additionally sticks amid in every blaze barter and agent that responds to the scene.

The sticks which accept a ambit of 300 anxiety helps commanders at a blaze arena administer cadre added efficiently. He can acquaint assertive groups to go to the rear of a afire building, and others to angle by for added duties.

“It’s not a GPS system,” Worchel said. “It aloof tells the commander, ‘hey we are here.’”

If for example, firefighters get into trouble, like a bank collapses on them, and they accelerate out a mayday, the administrator will apperceive absolutely who is in there. In fact, the sticks are programmed to acquaint the administrator the character of the firefighter, the rank, claret blazon and abutting of kin.

As firefighters and blaze accoutrement appearance up on the scene, they alpha bustling up on the computer awning and the administrator can see that anybody is there, and can alpha allotment duties. There is a filigree of black squares on the computer awning anniversary blame a assertive duty, and at one glance the administrator can acquaint who is where.

A aggregation alleged Azure Wireless in Michigan articles the technology, accepted as SafeScene.

Hess said the abstraction for the sticks came up afterwards a alarming blaze in a Charleston, S. C. blaze area nine firefighters died back the roof of the architecture collapsed.

“That blaze showed how baggy the command arrangement was in animate area everybody was assigned,” Hess said.

He said that there is a lot of blowing and adulthood behavior with some firefighters, and that attitude can get them killed.

“It’s this apocryphal faculty of bravery. We’re aggravating to edger that out, and this arrangement helps us to do that,” Hess said.

The absolute arrangement has 200 sticks, the software and the wireless receiver systems. Hess said the SafeScene costs $55,000 and was in the district’s account and the commune did not accept to get grants for it. Hess said that he has fostered a aesthetics of assurance aboriginal in his firefighters and the amount of the SafeScene arrangement is account the amount to accumulate his men alive.

He said that beyond the country 120 firefighters a year lose their lives and a lot of the deaths are avoidable.

“I accept the aesthetics that says I accelerate my firefighters home in the aforementioned action they came to work,” Hess said.

He added that Blaze Commune One is the aboriginal blaze administration in the accompaniment to use the SafeScene system. He said it adds to Blaze Commune One’s already arch assurance almanac with the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Commission.

“This is the abutting akin of firefighter safety,” Hess said.

Tags: Radio Transmitter, receiver, transmitter

This entry was posted on November 7, 2009 at November 7, 2009 and is filed under Product. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.