But when you have fires burning for six, eight, nine weeks, bunker gear gets to be pretty cumbersome."  The conference participants offered concrete recommendations to address the challenges and improve response capabilities. 

The apparent tradeoff between the level of protection provided by equipment and the discomfort and physical burden the equipment placed upon those using it was 

looked upon as an area in need of R&D.  Directing R&D toward advanced respirators, clothing, sensors, and other safety gear may be able to reduce that tradeoff. Other areas suggested by the conference discussions include applications of information technology and communications systems for better management of worker safety at disaster sites and continued emphasis 

on technologies for locating responders buried or trapped under rubble.  The study points out that technology transfer can help reduce personal protective equipment costs by spreading R&D outlays across a larger user community. It can also speed the introduction of new technologies to the emergency-response community. But the emergency-response community also has special safety needs that may not be adequately met through technology transfer alone.

Many at the meeting suggested that publicly supported R&D would be appropriate for addressing the safety needs of emergency responders.

For additional information contact: Dr. Brian Jackson at RAND Science and Technology Policy Institute, (1) + 703-413-1100, ext.  5950, E-mail: Brian_Jackson@rand.org.

Fire Fighters Receive Wireless Alarm Panel Information

NIST’s Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) staff and the NIST Fire Department held a series of full-scale fire tests in the Large Fire Facility (Building 205) on April 3, 2002.  The purpose was to demonstrate a new standard fire service interface and incident management information system.  BFRL has been working with the NFPA Technical Correlating Committee for the National Fire Alarm Code  (NFPA 72) to include the fire service interface specification in the 2002 edition of NFPA 72. 

A multi-room structure was built inside Building 205.  Furnishings were placed within the structure, ignited and allowed to burn to flashover. 

NIST researcher Dr. Walter Jones performs final check of laptop computer installed in NIST fire truck.

NIST firefighters in the station and in the responding vehicle were able to access real-time information about fire conditions (e.g., temperatures, visibility, fire size).  For those in the responding truck, information was transmitted to a laptop computer with a wireless modem installed in the cab.  The prototype fire alarm panel collected the information and transmitted it in a form that could be viewed as web pages by standard web browsers on any type of computer (handheld, laptop, desk) or text pager. 

All of the sensor measurements and onsite video coverage from the fire was available and  could be viewed depending on capabilities of the receiving device.  In addition, information from the sensors was processed using fire models so that higher-level information such as the heat release rate of the fire could be displayed.       

The wireless display in the apparatus, the terminal in the

mockup in the fire test building all had full access to the information and could query the system independently.  As the suppression team entered the structure, their position in the structure was monitored and displayed continuously (the tracking system is being simulated at this point because practical tracking technologies are still under development).  Conditions in the structure were monitored in real time and special warnings could have been issued if the system running fire models in parallel determined that the limits of the firefighters’ protective clothing was reached or flashover would occur before suppression could begin.

 It is still an open question as to how the vast amount of fire information that could be placed in the hands of incident commanders (IC) would be used.  We expect that the more information that is available to the IC, the safer and more effective the fire fighting operation will be.  More discussions with the fire service and demonstrations are planned.  Your ideas would be appreciated. 

For additional information, contact Walter W. Jones, (1) + 301 975 6887, wwj@nist.gov .

Firefighters enter NIST multi-room fire structure during fire test

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