Workshop on Emergency Management: Incident, Resource,

and Supply Chain Management   November 5-6, 2009

Center for Emergency Response Technologies, UC Irvine

Bruce H. Varner, Chair National Fire Protection Association Technical CommitteeElectronic Safety Equipment For Fire and Emergency ServicesFire Chief, Santa Rosa, CA

Technical Committee on Electronic Safety Equipment

• NFPA 1982, Standard on Personal Alert Safety Systems (PASS), 2007 Edition

• NFPA 1800, Standard on Electronic Safety Equipment for Emergency Services

• NFPA 1801, Standard on Thermal Imagers for the Fire Service Proposed 2010 Edition

High Priority Technology Needs

Personnel monitoring (emergency responder 3-D locator system) capability—in particular, X/Y/Z accuracy of better than 1 meter in a multilevel building providing incident commanders the ability to rapidly track and effectively deply or redeploy first responders in a challenging environment (Infrastructure and Geophysical Division)

Precision Indoor Personnel Location and Precision Indoor Personnel Location and Tracking for Emergency RespondersTracking for Emergency Responders

Technology WorkshopTechnology WorkshopWorcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MAWorcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA

There remains a critical need for indoor location and tracking technology by public safety departments, the military, the mining industry, and other fields where people can become lost or trapped indoors in dangerous or life-threatening situations

2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, Many projects, many presentations.

Project originated in the aftermath of the fatal warehouse fire in Worcester, MA on December 3, 1999 where six firefighters lost their lives

Geospatial Location Accountability & Geospatial Location Accountability & Navigation System for Emergency Navigation System for Emergency

Responders (GLANSER)Responders (GLANSER)

– Allow emergency managers, including fire chiefs and other incident commanders, to rapidly and effectively deploy and re-deploy their forces or understand and respond to the consequences of potential threats to their forces

– Accurately locate and track incident responders in X-Y-ZTargeted situation areas• Inside of threatened buildings• Collapsed buildings• Subterranean facilities or underground

Jalal MaparProgram ManagerInfrastructure and Geophysical Division Science and Technology Directorate Department of Homeland Security

Kate A. Remley, Galen KoepkeNIST Electromagnetics Division 818

Boulder, CO, USA 80305remley@boulder.nist.gov

Key Firefighter Environments•Outdoor-to-Indoor

•Residential (single or two story)•Multi-story (large (urban) and small (suburban))•Industrial•Subterranean

•Outdoor-to-Outdoor •Line of sight•Urban canyon

There are an infinite number of environments but many share common radio characteristics

=> Classify wireless environmental characteristics in terms of attenuation, multipath,

interference for firefighter applications

For the opportunity to be here today