But on that day in 2003, as flames strangled the single-family dwelling, hedges of smoke made it impossible to see where in the house the voice was coming from.
“Visibility was zero,” said Gerald Marion, deputy chief of the Englewood (N.J.) Fire Department. “We didn’t know who it was. We didn’t know where he was.”
Watching from the outside, the incident commander had no choice but to call all personnel out of the building. Once they determined who was missing, the commander launched an investigation to find him.
“The last thing we knew was that he advised his company officer that he was going out to change his [oxygen] bottle,” Marion said. “But before he could get out, he exhausted his air supply.”
They found him, eventually, sprawled out in the hallway, unconscious from inhaling toxins. Even though he’d survive, this incident helped Marion realize that he needed to find a better way to track firefighters on the scene or else lives could be lost.
About a year ago, the fire department deployed OnSite ERT (emergency resource tracking), a system that includes a management console, lunchbox-sized tag readers and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags — little black boxes smaller than a deck of playing cards, worn by firefighters. During an incident, these tags broadcast their locations to the reader and back to the management software.
With OnSite ERT, from Michigan-based ERT Systems, incident commanders can track personnel and equipment in real time on the scene and improve post-incident accountability.
The latest upgrade, OnSite ERT Central, takes the platform one step further, keeping up-to-date records of every emergency responder registered in the OnSite ERT network. That means an incident commander can access critical personnel data and identify firefighters even if they’re from a different agency or department.
“It really strengthens your ability to manage things right there on the ground in the last mile,” said Dennis Carmichael, ERT’s co-founder and president. “That’s where things tend to break down.”
The Power of Networking
Firefighters need as much support as possible to put out fires and save lives. During these emergency situations, the incident commander keeps track of firefighters and equipment. Traditionally it’s a paper-intensive, manual process that takes time.
OnSite ERT streamlines that management process with real-time mapping software. After arriving on scene, emergency responders immediately place “drop readers” around the hot zone. From the command center, the incident commander defines the different areas in the ERT software and can monitor the position of each firefighter as the reader picks up his or her pulse from the RFID tag. The incident commander also can put an RFID tag on specific equipment to quickly locate items, such as a water manifold or a thermal imaging camera, rather than asking over the radio, which saves time and improves efficiency in the field.
OnSite ERT Central saves firefighters’ records — photos, descriptions, credentials, etc. — into a central database. Any department or agency in the ERT network has access to that information, which means incident commanders can easily identify firefighters and their specialty skills during each emergency situation. And when a firefighter from a different department arrives on scene, the system will automatically recognize the responder as a valid firefighter.
“You get a printout of the whole situation,” said Michael Hewko, chief of the Dayville (Conn.) Fire Co. “And you can account for where the people are basically at all times.”
ERT Central lets departments share data, archive information about prior events and compare performance against other departments, Carmichael said. The system also backs up personnel information so if a registered station loses data or crashes its computer, the data will automatically be downloaded when OnSite ERT is reinstalled.
But the system is not flawless. “We’re working on improving the range,” Carmichael said, adding that the current range between a drop reader and a tag is 300 to 500 feet. But underground incidents or fires in heavy industrial areas, he said, “can reduce that signal a bit.”
As far as upgrades, Hewko would also like to see a 3-D personnel locater feature added to the software as well as a distress button on the firefighters’ ID tags.
“If the guy is in distress,” Hewko said, “he should have a button that tells me at the command center that we have a person down or in distress.”
Regardless, numerous fire departments already recognize the value of a system that keeps track of firefighters in the hot zone. So far, Carmichael said 40 departments utilize OnSite ERT systems in the United States and Canada.
Investing in Personnel Safety
Such a system would’ve been useful one late afternoon in July 2008, when a house exploded from gas buildup in Teaneck, N.J. The blast killed a man in his 60s who lived alone, set fire to another house and blew out nearby windows.
There were at least 15 different agencies on scene trying to tame the flames, Marion said. Keeping track of all the firefighters from various departments cost time and resources.
“Firefighters were operating over a wide area,” Marion said. “At this fire, we definitely could’ve used a system where we could put drop readers into staging areas. What a tool this would’ve been.”
By supporting personnel, the OnSite ERT system lets the incident commander manage problems efficiently while allowing firefighters to focus on their jobs. The software also provides pop-up reminders for the incident commander to do periodic roll calls.
“This system helps us use technology to leverage a safer operation,” Marion said. “We don’t have to go to another program. We don’t have to go to a reference book. If I have an incident and it requires a HAZMAT technician, I can search for that person using the OnSite system and I know where they are.”
The Englewood Fire Department purchased the system through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, and used local funding for additional tags and drop readers. Marion urges every fire department concerned about accountability to look into the system as an investment in personnel safety. He said he would rather spend $50,000 on an accountability system than lose one of his firefighters in the field.
“I want my personnel to come home at the end of their shifts,” he said. “You can’t put a price tag on that.”
