Fire units arrive quickly in response to the blaze. But these are no ordinary response units. They are equipped with enough technology to assess nearly every detail of the fire before they even arrive on the scene. This information allows firefighters to move in immediately, to get ahead of the fire, and to start saving lives and protecting property. This is the scenario Mike Godbold had in mind when he went to work to develop an incident management system for the city of Atlanta.
PREPARING TO MANAGE DISASTER
Godbold, a consultant who was formerly a design engineer for the state of Georgia, began developing the system over five years ago. While he worked to develop ideas, he realized building floor plans would be vital to making any emergency response system work. Godbold implemented Superbase software, from Phase Two Strategies of San Francisco. It uses about 18 different graphics formats, one of which is GXF AutoCAD. Because floorplans of most high-rise buildings are now done in AutoCAD or are easily transferable to AutoCAD, this was an obvious choice. The city then could simply require builders to submit their floorplans in AutoCAD format for approval, which would give the fire department instant on-site plans of any new buildings.
Godbold incorporated the building plans into what he calls the pre-plan system. The pre-plan system is set up to supply all the basic information about the building, such as the date it was built, number of occupants, where hazardous wastes are stored, etc. It also allows the firefighters to view the building from all sides on a main screen. This is done through the use of video cameras and a capture board system. "You still-frame the images you want," said Godbold, "copy it, and store it in Superbase along with the floorplans from AutoCAD. Then if you have any special information that you want to keep on the building, you store it in a separate library file that's linked to the address of the building."
INSTANT COMMAND SYSTEM
To tie into the pre-plan system, Godbold, along with several other emergency response experts in Atlanta, developed an instant command system. The system he developed is all menu-driven with buttons large enough for touchscreen use. His plan was to build the system into a van consisting of nine monitors. The middle monitor would be a weather link and link to cable television. "Most cities and counties now have cable weather capabilities so you can see a wide live radar sweep or you can get an instant forecast," he explained. Because weather plays such an important role in fighting fires, this is vital information.
The other eight monitors are the direct assimilation of the combination paper and magnetic board systems that are currently in use. "The idea was to build a software system that would emulate the way the magnetic boards operate, and also allow us to track every move that's made during an emergency response," said Godbold. The current system does not allow for this type of tracking or for the type of accurate information sometimes necessary for use in court.
"If there was a fatality in a fire and there is a question as to whether the fire department could have reached the person in time to save their life, this type of system could recall the information on hand at the scene - where the firemen moved in, how they progressed, what the critical factors were at that moment, etc. With the current system, we have no way of recalling that information," explained Godbold.
A sector assignment board in the system splits the building into sectors either geographically or by task-sector. It also consists of a fire department resource list including maps of where resources can be located. Additionally, it provides an external resource list in case more resources are needed at the scene. "This would list agencies, their phone numbers, approximately how long it will take them to get there and what services they can provide," said Godbold. This could save an incredible amount of time when there is no time to lose.
The sector assignment board also lists current manpower status at a particular fire, so if a building collapses there is an accountability list of who was inside and approximately where they were.
MAKING BETTER DECISIONS
The incident management system also displays the original pre-plan system on one screen as well as a task analysis board. The task analysis board supplies a critical review of what has been done at the scene so far. "Once you go through the entire process, from establishing command to allocating outside resources, then the objective is to go back and review what you've done," said Godbold. This allows for a review of each critical factor in a fire to determine whether it has been addressed and handled in the best possible way. It also shows where each unit has been assigned, whether they are in fighting the fire or waiting in a back-up position, and whether they need to be sent out to rehabilitate.
Rehabilitation is very important for firefighters, because their work is so physically draining and the risk of overexposure to carbon monoxide and other hazardous gases and chemicals is so great. Without proper rehabilitation periods, the firefighters' ability to perform their duties is greatly diminished. Therefore, a system that can track how long each crew has been on each floor is critical.
Godbold said the system he has developed would be scalable from huge command posts all the way down to notebook computers. The system is also customizable based on the incident command system any fire department currently employs. Godbold made sure this was a critical element in his system, since the biggest problem he encountered while developing it was working out the differences between each department's command system.
