As we head to Charleston, SC, this month for FireFusion, I can’t help but reflect on how much I’ve learned about technology and its vital role in assisting fire department operations on the street and at the station, coupled with the capability to pull reports that can help to justify budget and personnel needs and elevate interoperability to the next level.
While FirstNet and enhanced radio systems have moved the dial past the post-Sept. 11 terror attacks concept of interoperability, the “data” side of communications is exploding and making tremendous progress. As incident command/management software continues to evolve, we’re seeing more incident command platforms being enhanced to push for coordination between fire, EMS and law enforcement agencies. This allows for multiple organizations to receive situational awareness updates, view live data streams, including video, and grow accountability efforts from tablets and laptops at multiple locations on scene and farther away at unified command posts, which Chad Beam highlights in “GIS, Communications & Predictive Modeling Transform Disaster Response” (page 44).
With tools and equipment that’s built with streaming data-sharing, such as those that are showcased in this year’s Firehouse Innovations Awards (page 40) and others over the past few years, you can monitor threats at public gatherings from various locations without raising concerns of event-goers.
With so many acts of violence in public settings, whether a school shooting or at public gatherings, modern interoperability can play a vital role for the citizens and responders. We recently posted a story in which an after-action report showed that police didn’t establish formal command for a lengthy period at a school shooting. That led to confusion, multiple responders completing the same tasks and, ultimately, a significant delay in the fire department being notified. The report indicated that the outcome for the victims wasn’t affected, but the lessons from this incident can serve as a guide for unified incident management in the future.
On a recent webinar that we ran, I learned how a California department chief who wasn’t assigned to respond to an incident jumped on a tablet to input benchmarks, such as fireground assignments, staging locations and starting accountability efforts, which allowed the responding chief to arrive at the incident ready to command.
One key highlight of collecting incident response data is that it helps fire chiefs when it comes to requesting budgets for stations, equipment and personnel. Showing run volumes, heat maps and other data that already is collected provides a poignant tool that enables politicians to literally see the importance of proper budgeting for public safety.
Over the summer, I was visiting with a friend, and while talking to his son, who is a junior in high school, he shared that most of his homework assignments come from lectures, videos (often of lectures) and podcasts, with the digital textbook being the least likely used resource. As traditional learning shifts, it’s a reminder that firefighter education will evolve through various mediums, including a more didactic approach, and be enhanced by technology.
We’ve published several articles about the role of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, in firefighter training and how it can improve the outcome. On page 48, Steve Malley shares how AI reshaped the way that his fire academy instructs younger students, to lead to much higher grades without sacrificing hands-on skills and retention.
A while back, I wrote that robots weren’t replacing firefighters. Over the past year, I witnessed how technology can play a crucial role in ensuring that the future of human-operated fire departments can only get stronger when they embrace technology.
If you want to help to shape the future of your department, starting to get involved with discussion on technology implementation is the next step. With some keystrokes on a platform’s backend, it can help departments at many levels, some of which are unimaginable today.
