FireFighterNation

By Shannon Pieper
Published Sunday, May 20, 2012 | From the December 2012 Issue of FireRescue

“There’s an app for that.” By now, you’ve heard this clever little saying so many times that you’re probably annoyed every time it pops up. But it’s true—technology, specifically in the form of mobile applications, is transforming our lives. And it is poised to transform the fireground as well.

Smartphones and tablets can now provide a range of technologies that have application to the fireground—GPS tracking, video and audio recording, connection to department and dispatch records and preplans. The other day I read about two new apps, one that turns your phone into a portable Geiger counter to measure radiation, and another that can be used to test for the presence of eColi in water or food (granted, that one requires an equipment add-on—but still!). What we’ll be able to do with our phones in just a few years tests the limits of the imagination.

But there’s one problem with the smartphone or tablet as a delivery mechanism. There are a lot of them, and they run different operating systems. Sure, software developers can write multiple versions of code for their programs, but this takes time and resources.

That’s why Covia Labs thinks they’re onto something. The company has developed a software solution that enables applications to run on multiple platforms, without having to be tailored for the specific operating system. All that’s required is a piece of software (which Covia calls the Connector) installed on the phone.

There’s a huge potential consumer market for this technology, but recently, Covia has begun targeting the fire service as well. Why? The same technology that brings Angry Birds and calorie counters to our fingertips has the potential to provide firefighter heart-rate monitoring, indoor location, recording, etc. But the dissemination of these technologies to emergency responders will be much faster and cheaper if the developers can concentrate on developing their applications, and not on writing multiple versions of one program.

Recently, I spoke with David Kahn, Covia’s CEO, to learn more.

How It Works
Covia Labs is a young company, about three years old. Kahn says he had the idea for the technology when he was watching several fire departments respond to a fire in the South Bay of San Francisco. “I remember being a little bit surprised to see one fire department hand out walkie-talkies to the other responding departments, because the radios that the different agencies carried weren’t able to speak to one another,” Kahn says. “I remember thinking that it was really quite amazing that in 2008, this was the state of interoperability in the Silicon Valley for public safety.”

Kahn began thinking about how readily available technology could be used to improve interoperability. Not surprisingly, this led him to the smartphone. “There are a lot of people who make hardware or software systems that are meant to provide public safety advantages, tools for public safety—cameras, biometrics, heart rate monitors, RFID for tracking, etc.,” he says. “The people who make those products are experts on that particular technology. But it turns out that there’s a lot of infrastructure that each one of those companies has to deal with to make their system useful for people out in the real world. They may have to worry about encryption to protect the information, authentication, scalability, etc. My point: When you want to make something like this, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that people have to solve and re-solve to make the technology truly interoperable, to make it work between agencies.”

Covia’s solution: a platform that runs software across different devices while providing a secure, scalable system that can have hundreds of people from different departments using it. “Our piece of software is called the Connector,” Kahn says. “When you put this on the device—the LMR, the heart rate monitor, the cell phone, etc.—applications that are Connected Applications will be able to run on it.”

Public Safety & Cellular
With the nationwide public safety broadband network probably about 10 years away from operation, software like this is beginning to get attention. A group of NIST researchers in Boulder, Colo., is currently investigating how to move communications for public safety over to cellular. Covia Labs, along with many other companies, is involved in that testing.

At this point you’re probably thinking, “But I can hardly rely on my iPhone during fire attack, or search—it simply won’t withstand the environment.” That’s why Covia designed its system to work with the P25 radio you probably already carry. “P25 radios are really quite good at providing interoperable communication for voice between agencies, but they’re not very good for digital stuff because the data rates are too slow,” Kahn says. “The problem with cellular is that the transmitter on a cell phone is about a one-third of a watt, whereas on a P25 radio, it’s 5–6 watts. But they can work together.”

For instance, let’s say you carry a Motorola radio. Motorola would work with Covia to install the Connector software on the radio; it would also be installed on your smartphone. On the fireground, you would carry the smartphone on your person, inside the protective environment created by your PPE. You’d carry the P25 radio as you normally do, because it’s made to withstand the fire environment. But with the Covia software, the two are connected.

“P25 can act as a slow, yet high-powered uplink when you’re not able to reach the cell tower.” Kahn says. “You’ve got your mic, connected to P25 radio, connected by Bluetooth or wifi that’s on the cellphone, which is held inside the protective clothing.” When the system is able to use the cellphone for communications, it does, because that has the advantage that everything you say is geotagged and timestamped. “The knob on the top of the P25 radio, when it’s changing talk groups or channels on the P25, it also changes the channel on the cell,” Kahn says. “So you talk into the mic, your voice goes out via both broadband cell and P25, and when the cell is connected you also have the ability of the uplink of the biometric information, maps, etc.”

Branching Out
Covia has already deployed its software successfully within the law enforcement market, via a product called Alert & Respond. “We actually developed it as a software as a service (SAAS) for small departments,” Kahn says. “Rather than having their own IT infrastructure, they can use our servers, put the software on cell phones, and provide command and control in the field.”

Kahn says that as Covia worked with the Department of Homeland Security to develop Alert & Respond, DHS officials expressed that the technology could be applicable to the fire service as well, especially volunteer fire departments. “My impression had been that the fire service mostly just wanted reliable voice communication, wanted to stay on analog, so our focus hasn’t been on fire,” Kahn says. With the push for physiological monitoring, firefighter tracking, electronic preplans and real-time video at the scene, he realized that firefighters have just as much need for data as law enforcement—and the same budget shortfalls that make the relatively inexpensive smartphone an attractive communications device.

“We see a movement of fire and police trying to have a lot more information and passing more information to people in the field so they have situational awareness,” Kahn says. “And we think that our software is likely to be the glue that allows all those systems to work together, because otherwise the system that measures your heart rate will be different than the system that measures oxygenation of blood, etc. With the Connector, they’ll all be integrated on your cell phone.”

Whether this technology will take off, and where it will lead the fire service if it does, is anybody’s guess. But the bottom line as Kahn sees it: “The world of public safety is going through a transition from LMR to broadband—and we’re just waiting for what’s going to happen.”

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By Gary Nestler
Published Sunday, May 20, 2012

Today’s economy is forcing many local governments to make some difficult decisions about how to protect its residents. In fact, last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that state revenues had declined by an average of 31 percent since 2008. It is becoming clear that no department within state and local governments is immune to mandatory cost reductions.

With tightening budgets, companies are turning to a streamlining new technology to reduce their IT spend. Cloud Computing has been touted as the next game changer for businesses. Depending on who you talk to, migrating to the cloud is saving businesses 40 percent and more with respect to their IT budgets.

Businesses have gravitated to cloud computing because besides not having to pay for the physical space to host the servers where all the data resides, they no longer have to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that hardware and software are operating and up-to-date. Instead, companies are able to work with vendors that have capacity to host their data.

So why can’t this type of technology be applied within the public sector to help reduce costs?

Simply put, It can! The reality is that fire departments, for instance, already are leveraging the cloud and may not even realize it. Many departments have simply moved to Web-based email so they don’t have to manage the back-end infrastructure. Some are even sharing documents and other critical pieces of information via, yes, the cloud.

But it can be taken a step further. Take for instance a major metropolitan city. The city requires all high rises to maintain a ‘Building Identification Card’ on site that details building information, including information regarding elevators, stairwells, water supply and utilities, fire extinguishing and ventilation systems.

This information has become an invaluable tool for firefighters when responding to a call. They know where everything is once they arrive. Think of the greater value that could be derived if this pre-planned information were maintained in a Web-based environment. Here’s an example: firefighters responding to a fire at 123 Main St., not only know the location of fire hydrants, but are provided with smarter ways to visualize their environment, such as hazardous areas, engineering diagrams, floor plans and etc.  If they were able to access this information en-route from a handheld device, serving as an efficiency enhancer, knowing much more about all the particulars prior to arrival, they would be able to strategically place assets where they would be the most productive and beneficial, saving time and precious lives.

It’s clear that the cloud, with the vast amount of data available, can also assist fire departments in increasing their human interaction, further honing their skills through analytics, offering users the flexibility of access 24/7 of the applications from anywhere, and provide a secure environment to do so.

Ah yes, security--the perceived risk in cloud computing. Quite the opposite is true. Reputable cloud providers build their infrastructure with security top of mind, ensuring that only those who are supposed to access the information are actually getting the keys to the front door.

While there are always hurdles in adopting new technology, continuing to take the right steps toward Web-based, efficient solutions to assist fire departments to reduce incidents and allow them to do their jobs better is a win-win situation for everyone.

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By Timothy E. Sendelbach
Published Tuesday, May 1, 2012 | From the May 2012 Issue of FireRescue

Ever since the inception of the interior attack, fireground commanders have struggled to track and account for firefighters operating on the emergency scene. With the introduction of NFPA 1500 and 1561 in the late 1980s, the focus on fireground accountability and firefighter tracking was elevated to a whole new level. In response, the fire service implemented various accountability systems, from Velcro tags to barcodes to cow tags.

On Dec. 3, 1999, the complex nature of tracking firefighters on the fireground was tragically underscored when six firefighters from the Worcester (Mass.) Fire Department were killed after becoming lost and disoriented in a windowless, 94,000-square-foot, six-story, cold storage warehouse. This incident and the deaths of these six firefighters became the catalyst for the American fire service to begin its relentless pursuit of a fully integrated firefighter tracking system.

For the next 13 years, engineers and scientists from around the world worked tirelessly to overcome tracking system challenges, such as building construction, electronic interference and the inherently complex demands of the modern fireground.

On a separate yet equally important front, another group of scientists and engineers was working on developing a system to monitor and transmit the physiological status of firefighters while operating in this same environment. This effort sprung from the need to reduce the growing number of firefighters lost each year due to stress or overexertion on the fireground.

Despite countless hurdles, the solution to these problems appears to be within reach. With the financial backing of the Department of Homeland Security, three projects—PHASER (Physiological Health Assessment for Emergency Responders), GLANSER (Geospatial Location Accountability and Navigation System for Emergency Responders) and WASP (Wearable Advanced Sensor Platform)—are expected to enter the field for beta testing in the very near future.

Much like the advent of SCBA and thermal imagers, each of these projects has the potential to revolutionize the modern fireground and provide volumes of critical information to our incident commanders (ICs) and safety officers. But these technologies don’t come without their own constraints—we, members of the fire service, must design and develop the platform for their use and application.

For years, we’ve sought the ability to track and monitor firefighters. We’ve put forth some of the most technically complex demands imaginable for a system that couples accuracy and performance reliability. Now the question becomes: Are we ready to apply it?

The engineers and scientists have met our requests. Now it’s up to us to take ownership and answer the questions of how these advancements will be used to modify our incident command system, our strategy and tactics, and our training. It’s up to us to determine if additional resources will be required to monitor and operate these tools and technologies. It’s up to us to determine if the physiological data will be used as an indicator for mandatory crew rotations or to simply alert an IC of a potentially hazardous condition.

The modern fireground is no stranger to technology, but our ability to modify and adapt to technical advancements of this nature is sometimes questionable. To most, the use and application of these tools seems like a no-brainer, but what if it imposes upon our longstanding practice of an IC standing outside, in front of a building? What if it requires a reallocation of our resources, a compromise in our budget, a greater degree of emphasis on our physical fitness standards, more frequent crew rotations or a prolonged stay in rehab? Are we willing to make these changes?

Firefighters today work in one of the most demanding working environments imaginable and the development and application of new technologies to support these demands is no easy task. As leaders at all levels, it’s our duty and our mission to help make this profession safer for the next generation.
Throughout our career, there are events that leave a lasting impression on us for the rest of our lives. The cold winter day of Dec. 3, 1999, has long been remembered as a day of tragedy for the members of the Worcester Fire Department and the entire fire service. As these technologies move closer to implementation, we have an opportunity to turn this day of tragedy into a recognizable turning point for firefighter safety.

The question remains: Are you ready—or not?

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By Shannon Pieper

See Globe Manufacturing Company in Product Connect Published Friday, April 20, 2012

Neil Armstrong amazed the world when he walked on the moon during a live broadcast, and his words were instantly famous: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The fire service may soon experience such a leap forward when a firefighter steps onto the fireground.

For years, manufacturers have been chasing the elusive goal of a system that tracks firefighters inside the fire building. At the same time, they’ve struggled with ways to better monitor firefighters’ vital signs to prevent heat stress and its sometimes tragic outcomes. Now, Globe Manufacturing says it isn’t far away from a product that can do both.

Convergence of Technologies
A group of fire service writers and bloggers caught a glimpse of this new technology at a special event Globe held last night at FDIC. Before the event, I caught up with Mark Mordecai, director of business development for Globe.

“This technology is so exciting because we keep thinking about these electronic sensors as being something many years in the future, and then it turns out we’re in the future right now,” Mordecai says.” We’ve been talking about it for years and years and years, and we’re finally at the point where we’re developing a practical system.”

The system, called WASP—which stands for wearable advanced sensor platform—is an integrated wearable electronic system that monitors physiological signs and the firefighter’s location. It consists of two sets of sensors. The first set is for physiological monitoring and is incorporated in a fire-resistant base-layer T-shirt. “You have to have next-to-skin contact for physiological monitoring, so WASP has sensors built into a shirt that can be worn on a 24-hour shift, every day,” Mordecai says.

Those sensors transmit information such as EKG, heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, activity level, exertion level and posture (lying down, standing, crawling, etc.) via a Bluetooth transmission to either a voice radio or an Android cell phone. “Motorola radios have a digital side channel for data that can receive it and transmit it through the mission-critical radio to the command station, where it’s analyzed,” Mordecai says.

The second set of sensors is contained in the location tracking unit, which is worn on the belt of the turnout pants. That unit also transmits via Bluetooth to the command station.  

If you’ve been following developments in firefighter tracking, you’re probably familiar with systems that require firefighters to place repeaters or other devices around the fireground to enable the location system. WASP is different. “WASP is an infrastructure-free system,” Mordecai says. “You can make the tool more useful through preplanning, having layouts and floor plans and whatever, but none of that is necessary to be able to use this.”

Mordecai explains that the system is a kind of a “cocktail” of technologies—inertial navigation instruments, accelerometers, gyroscopes, technologies that measure direction and altitude. But the key is its ability to classify motion. “If you think about the basic pedometer, it classifies one motion, but firefighters have a very complex set of motions—walking, moving left or right, crawling, etc.,” Mordecai says. “All of those affect inertial motion, so we’ve been working on how to make the technology understand and identify those motions.”

Of course, Globe isn’t inventing all this technology itself. From the fabric used in the shirt to the sensors to the radios over which the information is transmitted, Globe is working with existing technologies, but integrating them together into a wearable unit that uses a common transmission system and a common base system.

Information with Context
Information overload is fast becoming a reality of our existence, but on the fireground, too much information can turn deadly. That’s why another key component of WASP is how all of the sensor data is relayed to the incident commander (IC)—which basically takes place on a laptop located at the command station. “

“The IC can’t be monitoring six different systems,” Mordecai says. “There’s a million different metrics that you might want to know, but they have to be integrated; they can’t be stand-alone so you don’t have conflicts between transmission, multiple base stations and all of the other things that would make it impractical. WASP demonstrates not only that the information can be collected and transmitted in a meaningful way, but that it can also be integrated into a system. Down the road, we’ll be able to integrate other sensor technologies.”

And it’s not as if the IC is looking at raw data and trying to interpret it. WASP uses algorithms to sort through the physiological monitoring data to determine whether the IC needs to be alerted to the condition of a firefighter due to factors such as fatigue, dehydration, heat stress, etc. “The IC can’t pay attention to everything, so the graphical user interface is an ‘at-a-glance’ alert of what they need to know,” Mordecai says.

Of course, then you have the question of who monitors the system. “That may depend on how it’s being deployed,” Mordecai says. “During a hazmat response, it could be a medical team or safety officer; in the operational mode, if there’s a downed firefighter, the IC is going to be very involved in the monitoring. But generally speaking, the IC wouldn’t be able to both manage a fire scene and look at the screen all the time, so it has to be an ‘alert’ function that demands their attention when it’s needed.”

Mordecai stresses that it is fire departments—not Globe—that will ultimately have to decide how the system is integrated into their standard operating procedures. “We need to give the tool to fire departments sooner rather than later, so they can figure out how their SOPs will work with the technology,” he says. “Larger departments often respond to fires with an ambulance; in that case, maybe the medics would monitor the WASP, but maybe it’s the safety officer, maybe it’s the battalion chief. And it could also depend on the type of incident—an extrication scene is very different from a fireground.”

WASP will also serve a critical function in rehab and, Mordecai notes, can also be used for fitness testing and monitoring.

If You’re at FDIC…
Globe is demonstrating the WASP system at FDIC (booth #2207) in a number of ways. “We have personnel in our booth wearing enabled shirts that monitor their physiological data, videos that show the system in use at field trials, and data loops that show what you would have seen if you’d been at the field trial,” Mordecai says.

Although you won’t be able to wear it yourself, don’t miss this opportunity to better understand WASP and see it in action. “We’ve been going out and doing field trials as part of this project, and we’d like to be able to share the results,” Mordecai says. “It will take the balance of this year to complete the project and field trials, but we expect by the end of this year there will be a commercialized system. So our intention is not to announce at FDIC that you can buy it, but it is real and it is coming in the near term, and FDIC is a tremendous opportunity to learn about it.”

Ok, So What’s It Gonna Cost?
Even though the product isn’t yet on the market, I couldn’t resist asking Mordecai for a price prediction.

“Cost is one of those things we’re really not sure about yet,” he says. “It keeps changing as the technology changes. It will be several thousand dollars a person—how many has not been determined.”

One thing that could lower the cost: Globe plans to offer components of the system for sale separately, so a department could choose to purchase just the physiological monitoring component, for example. “It could be modular in terms of deployment,” Mordecai says, “A department could start with one unit in training, or a hazmat or specialty team could start learning about the system before deployment in the full department. There’s a learning curve that the department will go through as well.”

Mordecai also points out that the WASP system will progress just like any technology—as it moves forward, performance improves and cost goes down. “It’s not unlike thermal imaging cameras—when they first came out, they were $25,000 a piece, later on price was $3,000,” he says. “It’s a fairly well beaten path of how technology gets out into the market, but if you wait too late to get it, you’ve missed the additional safety that you could get today.”

Mordecai says as a company, Globe is very aware that fire departments by and large do not have piles of money sitting around waiting to be spent on the latest technology. “In today’s environment, when you talk about cost and procurement, fire departments don’t have any money to maintain and replenish current equipment, let alone buy new things,” he says. “So our expectation is that most departments would need grant money to purchase the system.”

Committed to Investment
Closely aligned with that expectation is Globe’s commitment to WASP over the long term. The product has been in research and development since 2006, and Mordecai stresses that Globe was never looking for quick commercialization.

“Globe’s long-term mission allows us to invest in R&D when the marketplace is soft—this is one of the advantages that we have as a fourth-generation family-owned and managed business,” he says. “Globe’s owners believe that their mission is firefighter safety. Just because the pond [of funds] has gotten smaller, the need to invest in safety hasn’t lessened. We’re very committed to the mission of keeping firefighters safe as opposed to doing something that can be commercialized in a short time.”

And it’s the two big factors WASP addresses that could make it a giant step forward for firefighter safety. “As clothing and equipment has become more protective, we’ve discovered that we need to do everything we can to monitor the person inside that protective clothing, and we need to be able to track where they are,” Mordecai says. “If we can address the fundamental problems of firefighter physiology and location—if we can tackle two biggies in one system—we can make a significant step in making firefighters safer.”

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By Christopher Cooper and Jalal Mapar and Maxim Batalin
Published Sunday, April 1, 2012 | From the April 2012 Issue of FireRescue

Improvements in tactics and operations, sudden cardiovascular events (heart attacks and strokes) remain the top cause of firefighter line-of-duty deaths (LODDs). Recognizing this tragic statistic, the USFA established goals to decrease LODDs by 25% in 5 years and 50% in 10 years. These commendable targets create a primary national objective to develop a breakthrough in ensuring the health and safety of the emergency responder community. This breakthrough requires a state-of-the-art approach that combines medical science with technological innovations.

In response to this national challenge, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, has created the Physiological Health Assessment System for Emergency Responders (PHASER). The mission of the PHASER program is to empower emergency responders to embrace advancing technologies and medical understanding in order to increase their safety and to enhance wellness initiatives that are already recommended or in place.

A key component of this effort is to develop a practical way to monitor firefighters’ physiological status, such as heart rate, breathing rate and motion.  

Who's Involved?
The responsibility for PHASER was awarded to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where the program is led by experts from the David Geffen School of Medicine (Program Director Christopher Cooper, MD, and Associate Director Thomas Storer, MD) and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (Program Coordinator Maxim Batalin, PhD). The UCLA team works with a consortium of leading academic, industry and government partners, drawing on the expertise of Skidmore College (Denise Smith, PhD), with its long history of research with firefighters; the NASA Centers, which have extensive experience with astronaut-monitoring systems (David Kao, PhD at Ames Research Center and Todd Schlegel, MD, at Johnson Space Center); and Zephyr Technologies and other industry partners that develop physiological-status monitoring products. The PHASER team is advised by Fire Chief (Ret.) Bruce Varner, who also chairs the NFPA committee on Electronic Safety Equipment for Fire and Emergency Services.

Many organizations are concerned with firefighter cardiovascular-related deaths, including the IAFF, IAFC, National Volunteer Fire Council, USFA, FEMA, DHS, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and NFPA. These organizations fund research programs and publish guidelines and initiatives. Importantly, PHASER is not a replacement for any of the existing wellness/fitness initiatives; rather, it was developed to enhance these programs and to add exciting new opportunities for monitoring firefighters and other emergency responders, with the aim of reducing risk factors.

Prioritizing Risks
To understand how to mitigate risks that contribute to cardiovascular events in firefighters, we must first identify those risks. Accordingly, the first part of the PHASER program resulted in the development of a “Compendium of Risk Factor Analysis.” This scientific document includes a comprehensive evaluation of published literature in 17 risk categories with prioritization within and between categories. Each risk factor was assessed using a “level of evidence” approach; possibilities for mitigating the risk were also explored. Currently, the PHASER team is working on a second version of this comprehensive analysis.

PHASER-Net
Equipped with an understanding of the prevalence and seriousness of all risks, PHASER then aims to select and evaluate physiological sensors through laboratory and field-based experimentation, combining the experience of the PHASER team in medical science and engineering. The PHASER team is currently focused on the development and deployment of PHASER-Net, a low-cost, networked system for individualized emergency responder physiological monitoring and risk mitigation.

The goals of PHASER-Net are to support secure physiological data acquisition and analysis at various points of opportunity, such as during baseline assessment, training, fire suppression, search and rescue operations, and rehabilitation, as well as to provide individualized feedback and guidance toward the reduction of risk to participating emergency responders.

PHASER-Net employs a set of wireless physiological monitors and leverages low-cost, durable smartphone platforms via a PHASER-Net app (a mobile application interface) for secure data acquisition, processing and interaction with the emergency responder. The data from the smartphones is then uploaded via a secure network interface to the emergency responder portal (ERP), a secure server system located at UCLA, where the data is archived, processed and made available to individual emergency responders via password-protected personal Web pages. The system has been demonstrated to work on the fireground, and it is also suitable for wearing for long periods.

It’s important to note that the data collection and analysis by the PHASER-Net system is strictly confidential, governed by the university regulations that relate to the protection of human research subjects and overseen by the UCLA Institutional Review Board. This process ensures the utmost confidentiality and privacy for the individual firefighter.

At present, the PHASER-Net system consists of the Android mobile phone app and ERP (see photo, p. 66). The app supports the acquisition of physiological data during several firefighter activities, such as standardized treadmill testing (Wellness/Fitness Initiative, or WFI), aerobic or strength training, fire drill/training, fire suppression, search and rescue, and rehabilitation. The app acquires physiological data wirelessly (Bluetooth) from a chest strap (Bioharness by Zephyr Technology) worn by the emergency responder, which provides measurements of heart rate, 2-lead electrocardiogram (ECG), breathing frequency and motion via an accelerometer.

The app automates the WFI treadmill test, enabling emergency responders to perform self-evaluations of physical fitness via estimated aerobic capacity (VO2 max) in a standard, low-cost approach, while complying with established WFI safety conditions.

The accumulated physiological data is then packaged and securely transferred to the PHASER-Net ERP for archiving and processing. An individualized report is generated for every participating emergency responder.

Next Steps
The developmental stages of PHASER-Net were undertaken at the Redondo Beach (Calif.) Fire Department, in collaboration with Chief Robert Rappaport. As of spring 2012, PHASER-Net has been deployed during live-fire training exercises at the North Las Vegas Fire Department (under the supervision of FireRescue Editor-in-Chief/Assistant Fire Chief Tim Sendelbach) and will also be deployed at the Glendale (Ariz.) Fire Department (under the supervision of Deputy Chief Patty Frey) and at the Phoenix Fire Department (under the supervision of Deputy Chief Tim Smith).

We anticipate that continuing governmental support of the program will enable the program to expand to other fire departments across the country. During the ongoing development and refinement of PHASER-Net, the PHASER team will work in close partnership with participating fire departments to further define the key parameters for physiological evaluation, risk identification, operational assessment, intervention and guidance. Our goal is to add physiological sensors for the measurement and tracking of blood pressure, body composition, spirometry, pulse oximetry, fasting glucose and lipid profile. Participating fire departments might choose to incorporate an “advanced ECG” system developed in collaboration with Dr. Todd Schlegel from NASA.

The PHASER team feels privileged to have the opportunity to work with our nation’s firefighters and will continue to develop close collaborations to enhance the wellbeing and safety of all emergency responders who place their own lives at risk in protecting others.
 

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By Shannon Pieper
Published Monday, February 20, 2012

For years now, fire service publications and leaders have warned about a knowledge gap, as a generation of experienced fire service leaders retire, causing the officer ranks to be filled with firefighters who’ve seen far fewer structure fires and spent more time training for all-hazards response.

But as much as we’ve talked about this problem, we haven’t really begun to solve it. One area that’s shown promise: simulation training, which immerses the trainee in lifelike situations, building muscle memory that can be recalled when faced with a real-life situation.

Now, a new entry to the field is combining that approach with a unique way of capturing the experiences of outgoing officers. AlphaTRAC, an emeregency management and solutions company, recently released AlphaACT HAZMAT a web-based training tool that uses scenario-based simulation training while also capturing the experiences of its users (view a video about the training tool here). Although this first product focuses on hazmat, the company is building a tactical fire training program and has plans to enter the law enforcement training market as well.

Target: Better Decision-Making
“Our job has historically been to gather data and information and put it in a form that decision-makers in a crisis can use effectively,” says Reed Hodgin, AlphaTRAC’s founder and CEO. “About five years ago, we discovered that although we were delivering more and more information into the hands of emergency managers, we weren’t seeing a corresponding improvement in their ability to control emergencies. So we had to ask, if we’re giving them more information, why aren’t they making better decisions?”

What they discovered is that information is only one part of the equation. An equal, perhaps bigger, component is the natural decision-making ability of the incident commander.

“Some chiefs, battalion chiefs, etc., do a really great job of making the key decisions quickly when faced with a complex incident and little information, and others freeze up and do a terrible job even with a simple situation and a lot of information,” Hodgin says.

Studying research about the cognitive processes involved in decision-making and crisis reaction, AlphaATRAC’s researchers discovered the missing ingredient: experience. “Excellent crisis managers think differently than the rest of us do,” Hodgin says. “Over a period of 15 or 20 years, they come to use a different process of thinking.”

That process: recognition-primed decision-making (RPDM). Experienced decision-makers show up at a scene, do a quick size-up, and use the information they can see to trigger recognition, or the memory of an event that they have been to or been trained on or heard about. They use that event from history to help them deal with the crisis. Hodgin notes that this is extremely effective because, “while all emergencies are unique, they’re also in some ways similar to other things that have happened. ICs with a wealth of knowledge in their heads and the ability to recall that knowledge quickly make decisions in a blur, and good ones.”

Capturing Experience
AlphaTRAC was soon on a quest to determine how it could capture the experiences of skilled fire officers and share them with less-experienced colleagues.

At the same time, the Department of Defense noticed a similar need in military training, specifically training soldiers to prepare for asymmetrical warfare. So over the next several years, AlphaTRAC worked in conjunction with the DOD to develop a training platform.

“We went to the various disciplines that represent the end users and held workshops with law enforcement officers and firefighters, asking them, how do you share information, how do you like to train and how often?” Hodgin says. “We took that information and designed a technology that would 1) automatically gather experiences in a story format, because firefighters like to tell stories and 2) provide an innovative approach to training by turning the experiences people have had into scenarios that can be used to teach how to think fast and what are the important things to look for, to trigger the process of recognition.”

The beta version of the program was pilot tested with the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFRD) and Westminster (Colo.) Fire Department. SDFRD Battalion Chief Dave Williams, the department’s Special Operations-HAZMAT Program Manager, tested the program several times. “The first time was during a small work group meeting/presentation on the product, using laptop PCs that were provided,” he says. “Other times have been in our fire stations using the fire station PCs.” He immediately noticed the product’s potential. “It continues to improve each time I use it,” he says. “The information contained in the product is very good and applies directly to the hazmat incident response community. The scenarios are well thought out and consistently portray ‘real-life’ hazards.”

The SDFRD testing process also provided the opportunity to refine the product. Williams says the department suggested “clarification and revision on some of the technical aspects of the scenarios from a first responder’s perspective and some insights on how a first responder [student] would use the product.”

Perhaps most importantly, he also stressed to AlphaTRAC researchers that it would be important to “make the net result more clear to the first responder from the start, i.e., that the application is designed to teach a decision-making skill set and methodology and not just provide answers on how to handle a hazmat incident.”

The end product: a Web-based training tool that can be used by a responder or team of responders, in as little as 15 minutes. “It uses artificial intelligence engines in the background to look for patterns and bring the right experience to the fore for teaching,” Hodgin says. “The user logs in online and goes through one scenario or a variety of scenarios. The artificial intelligence agent scores it, and then coaches them on what they can do to improve.”

Williams says that the program is comparable to other simulation programs he’s used. “Once you learn the flow of the system, it becomes fairly intuitive and easy to use,” he says. “Initially, there is a short learning curve to navigate the interface to be successful.”

In addition to the computerized coaching, the platform includes a social networking aspect. Users can discuss their experiences in forums and critique one another, further enhancing learning. “We know that responders listen to each other better than they do some outsider,” Hodgin says.

Because the technology is built as a platform, it can easily be adapted to different disciplines. Thus, while AlphaTRAC began with a hazmat training product, it is currently at work on a much broader based tactical fire training program, which it expects to be available in late 2012. “Ultimately, what we’ve created is a thinking tool, not a hazmat tool,” Hodgin says.  

Positioning the training platform in this way evolved in part from the feedback of the SDFRD. Williams says he advised AlphaTRAC that to reach a broader student base, the product would need offer standard fireground scenarios. “Hazmat is not really all that interesting to the rank-and-file firefighter and/or incident commander,” he says. One caveat: Williams sees the product’s true potential as less of a tactical tool and more of a decision-making tool. “It strives to teach a decision-making methodology that can be applied to tactical fireground or all hazard incident scenarios,” he says.  
 
Next Steps
The IAFC is currently evaluating the AlphaACT HAZMAT training program; its Technology Council expects to release a white paper about this approach to training within a few months. The program is certified NIMS-compliant by FEMA and is available as a subscription for fire departments or individual users.

In the meantime, AlphaTRAC’s researchers are scouring fire service publications and training programs to help them develop appropriate tactical simulations for its fireground training program, all the time visualizing a new way to teach up-and-coming officers to be able to react with the experience of a 20-year veteran. “Our purpose is to improve all of our abilities to manage crisis situations,” Hodgin says. “That’s what we’re focused on. We’re doing this to improve emergency management.”
 
 

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By John B. Tippett Jr.
Published Tuesday, November 1, 2011 | From the November 2011 Issue of FireRescue

The work we do has been dramatically improved by advances in technology. From communications to PPE and incident command to power tools, performing any element of the job would be nothing short of primitive without technology.

The one caveat to technology is that it still requires human interaction. That interaction can result in two paths: 1) seamless performance and injury avoidance or 2) hobbled performance and exposure to injury. Obviously, the former is the preferred path. But there has to be an expectation that human error will insert itself, making the technology only as good as the people using it. Let’s review two reports that demonstrate how technology has made the fireground safer.

Report #10-534
“With the search done, the crew checked for fire extension with the thermal imaging camera (TIC). The check showed that there had been structural damage between the floors of the left duplex side. Information about a problem with the second floor supports was passed to command. Command withdrew the companies in the first floor. The companies were clear and just outside the building when the second floor collapsed into the first.”

The TIC is arguably the most significant technological advancement in interior firefighting since SCBA. The reporter here highlights the value of integrating technology into task performance and how that integration expedites the removal of firefighters from a hazard zone that could have gone unrecognized.

Report #05-335
“The remarks on our mobile data computer said only ‘26YOM bleeding.’ Given the time of night and the neighborhood, which has a history of violent crime, I texted our dispatcher, noting that the remarks were vague. I asked if they were sure that this call was not the result of violence. About 10 to 20 seconds later, the dispatcher advised us to stage away from the scene. A few minutes later another advisory told us that they believed that the hemorrhage was the result of an assault.”

Aware and alert of the hazards of the response district, and capitalizing on the technology at hand (the texting capability of the MDC), this near-miss reporter sought out and received information that confirmed his hunch, allowing firefighters a safer response.   

How to Prepare
Technology opens many doors to enhance human performance. One way to ensure maximum enhancement is to ensure that users fully understand the theory and practical application of the technologies. Follow these guidelines to ensure your department or crew is ready:

• Users should receive an adequate presentation of the technology’s theory before it goes in service.
• There should be a comprehensive, practical training period in an unhurried environment so users can master the skill sets needed—again, before the technology goes in service.
• Once the technology goes in service, the department’s research and development group, safety and training officers, or command staff should complete periodic evaluations of the technology.
• An annual in-service refresher training program should be conducted so users maintain proficiency. Note: More complex technology may need more frequent reviews at the company level.
• Finally, an annual evaluation of the technology’s performance should be conducted to ensure that the equipment is working as expected.     

Prevention & Closing
Failing to embrace technology has ramifications that go beyond simply not having the latest shiny toy in your hand. It places the firefighters in your department behind a safety and efficiency curve that lengthens with each new generation of technology. In order to maintain the balance between the “gee-whiz” factor and an essential addition to your operations, fire service leaders need to stay abreast of the latest technological developments while instituting a strategy for acquiring new technologies to test.

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By Adam Barowy and Daniel Madrzykowski
Published Tuesday, November 1, 2011 | From the November 2011 Issue of FireRescue

When a major fire occurs, especially one with associated firefighter injuries or deaths, departments often produce after-action reports, conduct investigations and inspect equipment. All of these are valuable in helping us understand what went right—and wrong—as well as institutionalizing the lessons learned from the specific incident.

But today’s technology allows us to go beyond our more traditional means of learning. Using sophisticated models, we can simulate the movement of fire gases and heat through a building and estimate the response of various fire-protection systems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the leader in the development of computer-based fire models, which have progressed dramatically as computer technology has improved. Such models allow us to understand from a scientific perspective how fires will play out under various conditions—and use this understanding to enhance firefighter safety.

2 Models
The Fire Research Division at NIST has developed different kinds of fire models for more than 30 years. Currently, it maintains two: Consolidated Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST) and the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS).

CFAST is a “two-zone” model that was developed in the 1980s. It has the advantage of producing a model in just seconds, but the disadvantage of providing only average compartment temperatures. FDS is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model developed in the past decade. It provides far more detail of the fire and the gas flow, but calculations can take hours or days to complete.

Both of these models can be used to simulate the movement of smoke and heat through a building. They can also be used to examine the activation time of smoke alarms and sprinkler systems. Both models use the scientific visualization tool Smokeview to visualize model results. Typically, these models are used by engineers to develop and support “performance-based” fire safety designs and to simulate fires as part of the fire investigation process. These fire models are verified and validated against fire test data to ensure that they provide the expected results.

Fire Reconstructions
In conjunction with local fire departments and NIOSH, NIST has developed fire simulations via FDS and Smokeview to assist in the understanding of the fire behavior in several line-of-duty death (LODD) incidents. The fire simulations provide insight into the growth and spread of fire and hot gases through the structures.  

FDS, rather than CFAST, is typically used for fire reconstructions. FDS requires the fire building to be modeled in a 3-D volume divided into computation cells; it then numerically computes the density, velocity, temperature, pressure and species concentration of the gas in each cell. The model tracks the generation and movement of fire gases based on the laws of conservation of mass, momentum, species and energy.

Smokeview is a user-friendly post-processing tool that allows FDS’ numerical simulation outputs to be easily displayed with 3-D images. Smokeview can display contours of temperature, velocity and gas concentration in planar slices, plus realistic renderings of the smoke and fire.
Inputs required by FDS include:

• Geometry of the structure
• Computational cell size
• Location of the fire source
• Energy release rate of the fire source
• Mass, geometry and thermo-physical properties of walls, ceilings, floors and furnishings
• Size, location and timing of door and window openings inside and outside of the structure

The selection of input parameters has a significant impact on the outcome of the simulation. In many cases we don’t know all of the materials and fuels that existed at a fire scene. Due to this uncertainty, a range of values is typically used for input into the fire model. As a result, for a given fire, dozens of simulations are run to determine the parameters that generate the simulation that best aligns with the physical damage, photographic and/or video recordings of the fire, fire timeline, fireground recordings and witness statements.  

Lessons from Fire Modeling
One of the key features of FDS models is the ability to visualize the fire’s flow path. In many of the incidents NIST and others have analyzed with FDS, the firefighters lost their lives due to a rapid change in the fire environment. In almost all of the LODD cases examined with FDS, a change in ventilation resulted in a major increase in the energy release of the fire that either limited the firefighters’ ability to leave the building or overtook them.  

For example, Cherry Road (Washington D.C., 1999), Iowa (1999), Prince William County, Va. (2007) and Texas (2009) all involved situations where the firefighters were positioned in the flow path between the source of the fire, and—due to the change in ventilation—the exit point for the fire gases. In other words, the firefighters were caught between where the fire was and where it wanted to go.  

As complicated a technological marvel that FDS and Smokeview are, for the firefighter on the street, it helps to think of fire modeling as an advanced way of visualizing the fire triangle. As the triangle tells you, fuel, heat and oxygen are required to combine via chemical reaction for a fire to exist. Take any one of these away, and the fire cannot exist.  

Most structure fires today are ventilation-limited fires. This means that there’s more fuel inside the structure (fuel-rich) than the available ventilation can provide oxygen for. The scenario has been demonstrated on the fireground and with FDS many times: The fire department arrives at the structure fire and only sees smoke. The smoke contains products of combustion that include fuels such as carbon monoxide, carbon particles and unburned hydrocarbons. So the structure, full of smoke, is effectively a large, insulated container full of pre-heated fuel.

The only thing missing from the fire triangle: oxygen. Opening a door or breaking windows will lead to a ventilation-induced flashover. This phenomenon was demonstrated at Cherry Road, and in wind-driven LODD fires, such as those in Prince William County and in Texas. The phenomenon was also demonstrated in the Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire. Significant quantities of hot smoke mixed with fresh oxygen after windows along the front of the store were broken out. As more oxygen was available to be burned, the heat release rate increased and flames extended out of the window openings.

What’s Next
Although the LODD simulations have been effectively used in firefighter training courses, effort is being made at NIST to enable firefighters to use fire models in a more proactive and interactive manner. As the capabilities of the fire models increase and computational speeds improve, the use of models in training must expand in order to aid in the understanding of fire dynamics, particularly the impact of ventilation on a fire and other tactical considerations that will help prevent LODDs in the future.

References

1. McGrattan KB, Hostikka S, Floyd JE. Fire Dynamics Simulator (Version 5), User’s Guide. NIST Special Publication 1019-5. National Institute of Standards and Technology: Gaithersburg, Md., October 2007.
2. Forney GP. Smokeview (Version 5), A tool for visualizing fire dynamics simulation data, Volume I: User’s Guide. NIST Special Publication 1017-1. National Institute of Standards and Technology: Gaithersburg, Md., August 2007.
3. Fire Dynamics Simulator, Technical Reference Guide, 5th edition. NIST Special Publication 1018-5 (four-volume set). National Institute of Standards and Technology: Gaithersburg, Md., and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland, October 2007.
4. Madrzykowski D, Vettori RL. Simulation of the dynamics of the fire at 3146 Cherry Road NE, Washington, D.C., May 30, 1999. NISTIR 6510. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., April 2000.
5. Madrzykowski D, Forney GP, Walton WD. Simulation of the dynamics of a fire in a two-story duplex—Iowa, December 22, 1999. NISTIR 6854. National Institute of Standards and Technology: Gaithersburg, Md., January 2002.
6. Technician I Kyle Wilson LODD Report. In Prince William County, Va. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=040061000230006431.
7. Barowy A, Madrzykowski D. Simulation of the dynamics of a wind-driven fire in a single-story ranch-style house—Texas, April 12, 2009.

Bryner NP, Fuss SP, Klein BW et al. Technical study of the Sofa Super Store Fire, South Carolina, June 18, 2007. NIST SP—1118. National Institute of Standards and Technology: Gaithersburg, Md., March 14, 2011.

For More Information

• More details on NIST fire models, reports and test data can be downloaded from www.fire.nist.gov.
• Complete descriptions of the FDS model and Smokeview, as well as the technical references that support the model, are given in references #1–3 in this article and can be downloaded from www.fire.nist.gov/fds/.

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As Hurricane Irene bore down on the East Coast, attendees at the annual Fire-Rescue International (FRI) conference—those who weren’t called back to serve their communities—gathered to network, learn about the latest issues in the fire service and, of course, view the newest innovations from fire service apparatus and product manufacturers. Following are some highlights.

Crimson
Crimson has expanded its product line to include the Classic Series, which features an all-aluminum extruded sub-frame, one-touch CAFS, one-hand pump-and-roll operation from the cab, and a range of engine-driven pumps and custom polypropylene tanks. On hand at FRI was a Classic mini-pumper, a demo Transformer pumper and a 103' quint built for Coram, Long Island. Crimson is also building big orders for Chicago and Toronto. This company has expanded immensely in the past several years and is worth taking a look at for your apparatus needs.

Ferrara
Ferrara displayed two units slated for the FDNY: a tandem-axle hazmat vehicle and a 100' rear-mount aerial. This new aerial design is built on Ferrara’s Ultra custom chassis and features an all-stainless-steel cab with a split-tilt design, seating for six and a 500-hp, 2010 EPA-compliant Cummins ISX11.9 engine. The aerial is a four-section rear-mount ladder with a 100' vertical reach. Its compact design is well suited for the congested streets of New York, and the 10' travel height will easily fit into the FDNY’s historic fire stations that have low door openings. Ferrara is building 42 of these units for the FDNY.

KME
KME displayed its 109' AerialCat rear-mount ladder, the newest addition to KME’s steel aerial ladder family, which also includes 79', 100', 103' and 121' aerial ladders. The unit has an unrestricted 750-lb. dry tip load and a 500-lb. tip flowing 1,500 gpm. The ladder also has a 109' vertical reach and a 100' horizontal reach. It has a short wheelbase and a 16' outrigger stance.

Safety is definitely key in the design of this rig. It features a knurled, stainless-steel, bolt-on ladder egress that provides a safe surface to grasp when exiting a roof or a window. It also has a ladder tip skid guard, which allows the ladder to slide on the roof or the side of a building without ladder tip hang-up, as well as wider and higher ladder sections and photoluminescent rung covers.

Pierce
Pierce made a big splash with the Dash CF at FDIC. By August, several departments—including Cedar Hill, Texas; Bloomington, Ill.; and Cranbrook, British Columbia—had placed orders for this apparatus. Pierce vehicles on display at FRI included a PUC Quantum pumper/tanker for Fairfax County, Va., a Velocity heavy-rescue for Dallas, a 75' quint for the U.S. Marine Corps, an Arrow XT for San Diego, and a Responder pumper for Ray City, Ga. Pierce also showcased two Dash CF demo units and two Med Tec ambulances.

Other big news from Pierce: It will now be the exclusive North American distributor of the Bronto-Skylift brand of aerial platforms.

Rosenbauer
If you’ve seen Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, you’d recognize Rosenbauer’s Panther 6 x 6 ARFF vehicle on display. The vehicle was used in the filming of the movie and played the character Sentinel Prime. The original vehicle was repainted a different shade of red and had the windows darkened for its movie role. For those of you who collect fire apparatus toys, Hasbro has released this truck in Transformer configuration in different sizes; it expects to sell 300 million copies.

Rosenbauer also showed a pumper built for Peach Tree City, Ga., featuring a 1,500-gpm Hale pump, a 750-gallon water tank, triple speedlays, a Hale Foam Logix foam system, a powered ladder rack, a 9-kW Smart Hydraulic generator, and Class A and B foam tanks. It also carries a Hurst rescue tool system with cutters and spreaders.

Seagrave
Seagrave wasn’t at FRI, but it is definitely keeping busy. Seagrave just announced an order of 12 customized, 95' Aerialscope platforms for the FDNY built on the Marauder II chassis. This chassis emphasizes safety, with a stainless-steel, split-tilt cab and rectangular-tube, steel roll-cage construction. The FDNY rigs feature raised roofs, extremely durable interior treatments, additional protection for cab interior occupants, additional bumper reinforcement and undercarriage protection. These features promise improved hydraulic performance, service-friendly diagnostics and a compact boom for shorter overall truck length, providing an unrestricted 1,000-lb. platform rating while flowing 1,250 gpm of water.  

Spartan
Spartan Motors has been busy in the past year. It announced that it will provide an additional 25 cabs and chassis built on the Metro Star chassis for China. W.S. Darley will be installing a heavy-duty CAFS system on several of the chassis, along with other pumps and bodies. With this order, Spartan will have built a total of 94 units for China.

Spartan also continues to work on idle-reduction technology, which expands vehicle service life while cutting maintenance and fuel consumption by up to 50%. The less we can depend on foreign fuel, the better. I think you’ll soon see all of the other manufacturers concentrate on this concept.

Hot Products on Display at FRI
Lighter, Smaller Cylinder
Who doesn’t wish they had less weight to carry inside a structure fire? Scott Safety has just introduced a 5,500-psi (5.5) SCBA cylinder. The 5.5 cylinders maintain the form familiar to users, but provide an 11% reduction in profile and a 15% reduction in weight to reduce user fatigue. The cylinders are available in 30-, 45-, 60- and 70-minute durations. Scott worked with other manufacturers to ensure these cylinders would work with seats and brackets already on the market. They are also compatible with Air-Pak 75 and Air-Pak NxG7 SCBA. They will be ready to ship in January 2012 with full NFPA and NIOSH approvals. A lighter and smaller SCBA will definitely be a step ahead for firefighter safety.

Crystal-Clear Remote Speaker Mic
If you’ve been at any of the major fire service shows over the past year, you might have taken Motorola’s demo, in which they show you the clarity and volume produced by their APX EX series of radios. These radios are a vast improvement over the handie talkies you’re probably used to. At FRI, they added a remote speaker mic (RSM) to the APX lineup. Large controls—including a protected emergency button, a prominent push-to-talk button, and a large volume control—make the RSM useable even with bulky gloves. A larger speaker enables the user to hear radio transmissions over background noise, such as apparatus, tools and sirens. Other features include a high-visibility green color, an emergency-activated strobe light that’s visible up to 10 feet in thick smoke, flexible mounting options with a large D-ring and a clamping clip that rotates 360 degrees.

Other big news: Motorola announced that it donated $1 million to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

Multi-Band Radio
Not to be outdone in the radio market, Thales Communication announced that its Liberty LMR (Land Mobile Radio) is fully approved and ready for sale to the fire service. The Liberty LMR enables interoperability across all public safety bands (136-174, 380-520, 700 and 800 MHz), linking government agencies and first responders with a single portable radio. It operates in Project 25 (P25) conventional, P25 trunked and legacy analog modes with Output Feedback Data Encryption Standard (OFB DES) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

More and more radio manufacturers are designing multi-band radios that make interoperability on the fireground easier. Finally, we can talk to one another without a major problem. These new radios from Thales should be a great improvement for fire, police and EMS agencies working with each other at major incidents.

Wireless Communication
Wireless communication systems are the way to go on the fireground; it’s great to not have to worry about hooking up a headset to an apparatus or an aerial ladder pedestal. Firecom’s wireless headsets withstand extreme outdoor temperatures and conditions, with up to a 700' line-of-sight radius using secure and interference-free digital signaling technology. This amounts to more than two times the range and five times the coverage of alternatives that use open-license band technology. The systems can scale from one to 60 team members and can be configured to share a connection with vehicle radios for critical on-scene communication through the headsets. These wireless headsets should provide added hands-free operation to an already busy fireground.
 

New Company to Provide Customized Outerwear
WaterShed Apparel came into existence in 2011 as the culmination of a merger between two Oregon technical outerwear companies: WaterShed Inc. and Airtime/Nine1One Gear. Although both of these companies had their roots outside the fire service, their product line-ups have expanded to target fire and EMS professionals nationwide. At times, their customer bases overlapped, making a merger attractive, but there was another reason, too—their commitment to manufacturing products in the United States.

In early 2011, Nine1One moved all of its offshore manufacturing back to WaterShed’s Salem, Ore., factory and headquarters, and the two companies merged as WaterShed Apparel LLC. In addition, Nine1One developed three new jacket designs for first responders that can be personalized, which enables Nine1One dealers to offer custom options previously unavailable to customers. The Infinity line comes in reflective and non-reflective versions and in 14 different colors. Users can configure badge holders and pockets before the jacket is produced.

It’s a pleasure to read about a company bringing back manufacturing to the United States, subsequently providing additional jobs for the economy. Nine1One products are of a great quality, so if you are in the market for these types of garments, check out their website (www.nine1onegear.com) for more information.

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During Saturday morning’s general session at Fire-Rescue International in Atlanta, former IAFC President Chief Ronny Coleman presented the IAFC’s Award for Excellence to the San Ramon Valley (Calif.) Fire Protection District (SRVFPD) for its app, Fire Department (http://firedepartment.mobi). The location-aware app empowers citizens to provide life-saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Specifically, app users who have indicated they are trained in CPR can now be notified if someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency and may require CPR. The app also directs citizen rescuers to the exact location of the closest public access AED.

Co-sponsored by the IAFC and U.S. Safety Fire Technologies, the Award for Excellence recognizes innovations and achievements in managing resources to reduce the loss of life and property from fire and other emergencies. The award was conceived in 1989 by Chief Coleman, IAFC president 1988-1989, and sponsoring partner, Wayne Boyd, president of U.S. Safety Fire Technologies, which is changing its name to Global Safety.

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