Ten years later, Worcester tests new technology that could have saved all 6 lives

New system enhances situational awareness

Ten years of research and development will be put to the test as the Massachusetts Fire Academy’s burn building is fitted with sensors designed to detect changing fire conditions- offering real-time situational awareness to the incident commander.

Firefighters will also be fitted with sensors on their SCBA harnesses.  The sensors will constantly track their location within the fire building, and monitor the environmental conditions as they move throughout the structure.  All information is sent to the IC’s laptop where it is integrated into the strategy being deployed.

Separate sensors in their masks will track their heart rate, respirations, and pulse ox.  Heart attacks are the leading cause of firefighter line of duty deaths.

Firefighters will also deploy an environment-sensor box that extends a mast to measure floor-to-ceiling heat differences. The system has been developed by James Duckworth and David Cyganski, engineering professors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  They are looking to simulate conditions that lead up to flashover during the testing situations at the burn building.

Worcester (MA) Fire Chief Gerard Dio is helping test the system.  Chief Dio lost two of his men in the 1999 cold storage fire, then lost four more who went in to rescue them.

From the article in Popular Science:

“Years ago, before we got hoods, we’d burn our ears and necks, and that would tell us ‘That’s too frickin’ hot, let’s get out,” says Chief Dio.  Now, firemen feel the intense heat only when it’s seconds from flashover.

“Considering that they’re risking their lives, it’s pathetic that firefighters are using what’s essentially 19th-century technology,” Duckworth says. “This will bring them up to date.”

“I know we did the best job we could at the time,” Dio says, “but this system could have saved all of their lives.”

The researchers hope to have the system in the field by 2013.  Click here for further details and photos.

Also on Fire Daily…

• 360 Burn Size-up of the Fire Web 12/3/2009 – December 3, 2009
• Indoor Video of a Catastrophic Fire Event – February 3, 2010
• The Ghosts of Fires Past – December 14, 2009
• Firefighter Storytellers Wednesday Night: “My dad was a Chief at the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire.” – July 12, 2010

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