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A Fighting Chance

Tiny handheld computers serve as huge firefighting tools.

Fighting a wildfire means combating an enemy that can change its course as quickly as the wind changes direction. So imagine what 2,000 firefighters are up against in trying to extinguish a 10,000- acre blaze.

That's exactly the task firefighters in San Diego County, Calif., faced in early January 2001 when they squared off against a moody blaze that exploded out of control. But a new ally showed for this tussle, the 1-pound iPAQ Pocket PC, a tool that had firefighters wondering why it took so long.

"It makes all the difference in the world as far as firefighters' safety is concerned," said Tom Patterson, a fire management officer with the National Park Service. "We need to know where the fire is, what's in front of it, what the values are, what the risks are, how fast it's moving. We can answer all those questions by mapping it with the iPAQ."

Patterson's crew was the first to use the iPAQ on the six-day Viejas fire that burned more than 10,000 acres in San Diego, caused $1.8 million in damage and forced the evacuation of 1,000 residents. There were two iPAQs used in that fight but more have been put to use since then to battle several fires near the Mexican border and in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California.

The iPAQ, from Compaq (now merged with Hewlett-Packard under the banner "the new HP"), is matched with ESRI's ArcPad GIS software and a GPS receiver to provide fire crews the ability to record and map data, such as the direction of the fire, the location of nearby structures and other key data, and transmit it in real time to crews on the front lines.

Hot Tool

During the Viejas fire, and others since, Patterson took an iPAQ with him as he boarded helicopters to survey the fire and route information to those on the front lines. Patterson used the Pocket PC to digitally map geographic coordinates of the fire and detect hot spots in terrain that was too steep for firefighters on the ground to access.

So choppers, directed by the geographic coordinates displayed on their iPAQs, were sent to the rescue in those tricky areas.

In determining the perimeter of the fire, the handheld with the ArcPad software records a "fly line" as the helicopter traces the perimeter of the fire. When the helicopter has completely traced the fire, the ArcPad will close that line.

During the Viejas fire, the choppers had to trek back to the command center and download the information they collected. But now the information can be sent in real time from the choppers to the front-line firefighters.

"We have two slots on the Pocket PC, one for GPS data and another for a wireless LAN, so you can literally be collecting data and then have it wirelessly transmitted back to the fire command center," said Sherry Walshak, director of state and local government of the new HP.

"It really increases the safety of the firefighters because they can literally update information on where the fire is, which direction it's going, the problem areas, etc.," Walshak said. "The more information they have on the ground the better able they are to really respond the most effective way, whether you're dropping fire retardant, whether it's deploying personnel, evacuating people; and the thing is, these fires are so fast that this kind of information is crucial to protecting lives and property."

It's a far cry from the 10-pound notebook computer, a GPS receiver that weighed about two pounds, several feet of cables and adapters and connecters that used to have to be hauled to fires to get real-time reports.

"I looked like a geek when I got on the helicopters," Patterson said. "The pilots would laugh because I'd be getting on with all this stuff hanging off of me. Now the pilots think I'm cool because I've got an entire GIS data collection platform that I just pulled out of my flight suit pocket."

The iPAQ has a color display that can be read in bright sunlight, and the map data can be stored on 32 or 64 megabytes of RAM. The wireless capability is achieved by sliding a PC card expansion pack onto the iPAQ.

At the beginning of a firefight, the iPAQs have grids on which overlays of a map of the fire are placed. The overlays are changed hourly, giving firefighters up-date-information on where the fire is headed and other key information.

"Before [the firefighter] goes out, he could have topographic maps, he could map data of all the locations of sensitive areas like threatened and endangered species habitat, you have political boundaries," Patterson said. "It's limited only by the storage capacity that you have. With these 5 gigabyte hard drives, we can carry everything we need with us when we go in the field now."

And with the wireless LAN card, Patterson can gain access to the Internet to get all the updated weather reports. He can also download reports of other fires in the region that may be higher profile. This gives him an idea of how resources will be allocated in the region.

Getting Word Out

Patterson has become the iPAQ guru and spends weeks at a time teaching other organizations about how to take advantage of the technology. Other agencies have begun to use the devices, including the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and fire protection.

Walshak said the new HP has made a donation of iPAQs to the battalion chiefs of the New York City fire department to find out how the PCs will work fighting fires in an urban environment.

Others are following the evolution of the technology before springing $500 a pop for each PC. What some are waiting for is a more rugged, "firefighter-proof" PDA, one that's water-proof, one that has built-in storage capabilities and doesn't require the additional purchase of an external expansion sleeve, and one with sturdy, non-breakable serial port connectors.

Those improvements will add to an already marketable fire-fighting tool that is catching on, according to Patterson. "Some of the more reasonable managers want to get value -- return on investment. They'll pay a few extra bucks for a more rugged unit they know will be in service for two or three years versus the least expensive unit that will probably map three or four fires and then they'll have to go into the shop to be repaired.

"I've had really good luck with the iPAQ because I've been taking really good care of it," Patterson said. He added that the average firefighter might not take such good care and possibly break the device.

"We were doing things with it that it wasn't designed to do and it was the first and the most popular and the most powerful PDA on the market in January 2001," Patterson said. "I predict that 2002 is going to be the year for the [more rugged] devices because they're all coming out this year."

And that's good news for firefighters everywhere.