Firefighter Life Safety Initiative #8 states that the fire service should “utilize available technology whenever it can produce higher levels of health and safety.” Fire service manufacturers have certainly stepped up to meet this challenge, and there were many high-tech products showcased at FRI.
RFID
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that transmits information by radio waves, and it’s gaining popularity in the fire service as a tracking mechanism for equipment. Holmatro showcased its new RFID system, which is a free online equipment management system for easy identification of a fire department’s rescue tools. All Holmatro rescue tools and equipment will be marked with RFID tags at the factory. You can use this to add equipment to your inventory, send product-based service inquiries, search your inventory and find or add related documents–all paperless.
Holmatro USA
www.holmatro-usa.com/rescue.htm
Radio Enhancements
The advent of digital radios brought its own set of problems, including digital noise interfering with audibility. Motorola’s APX 7000XE is a new line of radios designed to combat these issues. The radios have GPS location tracking, a two-microphone system that filters out background noise and noise-canceling software that can also filter out fireground noise. The top display on the unit is lighted and can be configured to receive commands based on the color transmitted.
I liked the large knobs on the radio, which enable it to be used no matter what type of gloves you’re wearing. Ease of use of radios has been a complaint from firefighters for as long as I can remember.
The radios were tested by Motorola engineers during live fireground training with the Sunrise (Fla.) Fire Department. The company made improvements to the radios before the final product was introduced.
Motorola
http://business.motorola.com/publicsafety/secondnature/index.html
Biomonitoring
With a huge percentage of LODDs being cardiac-related, any technology that can help incident commanders and safety officers monitor firefighter vital signs is a good addition to the fireground. A new product introduced jointly by Zephyr and Motorola attempts to do just that. The BioHarness consists of three parts: a sensor worn by the firefighter, a radio and PC applications software. The harness monitors heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, activity and posture. The information is transmitted by radio to a PC at a command unit. The system is currently available only for older Motorola radios, but will be available on the new APX radios soon. The product is set up to monitor up to 64 people simultaneously on scene; the companies hope to be able to offer longer-range transmittal of the information in the future.
Zephyr
443/569-3603
www.zephyr-technology.com
Firefighter Tracking
Countless hours and many R&D dollars have been invested in developing firefighter tracking and accountability systems. One of the more recent additions to this field is Harris’ GR-100, a two-module first-responder locater developed for the fire service.
How does it work? The tracker module is attached to an SCBA and is activated when the SCBA is turned on. The GR-100 automatically scans for a local GPS signal for a starting location. Once inside a building, the sensors in the device utilize an on-scene tactical data radio network to determine the user location in three dimensions. This allows the incident commander to determine the floor and horizontal position within a search radius. A rugged tablet PC, augmented with a data radio, displays interior user locations continuously and is updated every few seconds.
The great thing about this product is that it operates independently of existing voice radio systems, which means it won’t interfere with fireground radio operations.
Harris
800/368-3277
www.harrispublicsafety.com
In-Field Data Collection
As computers get smaller and more mobile–the iPad being the most visible example–applications that allow personnel to collect data in the field are gaining traction. Firehouse Software has developed an iPad application called FHinspector. Fire inspectors can use the stand-alone app to automate fire codes and forms, input pre-plan data and take notes. Once a business has passed inspection, you can print out their permit; the app can also perform billing. Records can be updated on the scene and then transferred to a mainframe server if needed.
It sure beats manually writing while performing an inspection, and should increase speed and efficiency of inspections.
Firehouse Software
800/921-5300
www.firehousesoftware.com
