Interoperable Dynamic Tactical Information for Public Safety Officials.
Interoperable Dynamic Tactical Information for Public
Safety Officials.
(598 K)
Davis, W. D.; Evans, D. D.
Fire Suppression and Detection Research Application, 8th
Annual Symposium. Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
Proceedings. January 21-23, 2004, Orlando, FL, 1-9 pp,
2004.
Keywords:
fire suppression; fire detection; safety; information
utilization; information technology; standards; fire
departments; storage; emergencies; builidng fires
Abstract:
Currently, fire department notification of a building
fire comes from either a building fire alarm system
monitoring service or a 911 call. The emergency
responders know very little about the situation until
they arrive on the scene. Information for their initial
response begins with the pre-emergency building survey,
if available, and is supplemented upon arrival by the
visual "size up" of the situation. Many fire departments
are replacing paper pre-emergency building surveys with
electronic information that can be accessed from mobile
computing equipment in the apparatus. Unfortunately,
there are currently no standards for the content of
building emergency information or its display format.
Without these standards, interoperability of equipment
to share electronic information between all first
responders to large-scale emergencies will be a problem.
The purpose of this study is to develop standards for
building emergency information to improve situational
awareness. Practical methods to supply and use the
information are also investigated. The standards effort
will cover six areas: information content,
representation, storage, access, transport, and
presentation. This effort enables improvement in the
safety and efficiency of emergency responders. It
provides the foundation for a future emergency decision
support system that takes advantage of modern
developments in building fire and other hazard
predictions.
