FL Fire Dept. Uses New Technology to Improve Response Efficiency

The number one duty of a fire rescue department is to respond quickly to emergencies to save lives and minimize property damage. In Florida, the Riviera Beach Fire Rescue Department was slowed down by the outdated technology in their response center, wasting valuable time before they could leave for the scene. The system was outdated, and required firefighters to pull together information about traffic conditions and fire hydrant locations to calculate the fastest route to the scene, and how much fire hose was needed.

The city of Riviera Beach needed an updated system in their four fire stations, and called on the Information Technology department to come up with a solution. IT Manager Elvis Mella and his team were up for the challenge, and were looking to make an upgrade that would be effective for their fire rescue units as well as a worthwhile investment.

The Solution
The Riviera Beach Fire Rescue Department found that other counties and municipalities were using more sophisticated systems to manage emergency calls, plan routes, and calculate hose length and other factors, with multiple pieces of hardware connected, including a PC with the Active 911 System and a TV. This integration inspired Mella for the Riviera Beach Fire Rescue Department’s system, as he considered different devices that could contribute to the best possible response system. “My goal was to take it to the next level by implementing technology that was intuitive and would allow the department to significantly speed up response time, while also providing access to critical information faster.”

Mella and his team had recently installed an InFocus Mondopad, video conferencing and collaboration system at the Riviera Beach Port Center, and the feedback had been extremely positive. The Mondopad’s includes built-in video conferencing and collaboration features, easily accessed on the capacitive touch screen for white boarding and more interactive meetings.

Mella wanted to provide the Fire Rescue Department with a fast and intuitive touch screen system like the Mondopad, but didn’t need the video conferencing feature. He learned about the Big Touch, a large tablet-like device featuring a fast Intel Core i7 processor running Windows 10 that would allow the fire department to run any applications and pull up multiple layers of information quickly. And, now available with Android hardware, also allowed them to seamlessly run the Active 911 system.

Installing the BigTouch devices at each of the four fire stations in the district was simple; it took only a few hours to install and connect to the network. The BigTouch is mounted in each fire station’s ‘huddle room’ – the most high-traffic area of each fire station between the common areas and the fire rescue vehicles. So, in two to three seconds, the firefighters can interact with live emergencies once they receive an alert from dispatch simply by tapping the screen, selecting the alert, and responding to the call.

The Results
The BigTouch system received a positive response from the Riviera Fire Rescue Department teams. “The feedback has been amazing. With BigTouch, the firefighters don’t have to waste time worrying about tedious tasks during the stress of a fire drill,” said Mella. “By simply walking up to the screen and tapping a few buttons, they have instant access to all of the data they need, right when they need it.”

The new setup reduces incident response times, with more geographical information at the firefighters’ fingertips, allowing them to plan their response and get in the trucks faster. They also spend less time spent manually calculating before rushing to the scene, where, on the BigTouch, the firefighters can see various layers of data simultaneously. The fire location, nearby fire hydrants, traffic, and the fastest suggested routes via Google Maps are clearly displayed and refreshed every five seconds.

The fast-moving data overlays allow them to quickly calculate the number of feet of hose needed, by using their finger to draw a line from the fire location to the nearest fire hydrant — eliminating the need to do manual calculations. And, they can then transfer the information from the BigTouch to tablets to take with them on the road.

The BigTouch implementation at Riviera Beach Fire Department will evolve, with the goal to add more map layers, including instant water pressure readings of each fire hydrant, and a map of the underground water pipes in the city, so firefighters can locate alternate water sources for hard-to-reach areas.

After seeing how well the BigTouch devices work in Riviera Beach, the fire chief wants to implement identical systems in other fire stations, and the chief of police is considering similar applications at the local police stations.

“The Fire Rescue service is a profession where there is a direct correlation between response time, and impact to people’s lives and property,” said Riviera Beach Fire Chief, Reginald K. Duren. “The BigTouch, and its ability to integrate with multiple systems not only enables Fire Rescue to arrive more expeditiously, but also to arrive better prepared to meet the needs of the response. We are excited with the current application, and look forward to building an even more robust and intuitive system as the project continues to grow and mature.”

For more information about InFocus, visit https://www.infocus.com/