News

A Tactical Approach to Situational Awareness

Published Date: 07.28.2011

By Michael Walker, Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company

There continues to be much discussion inside Homeland Security, Emergency Management, and within senior leadership levels of the fire service about improving situational awareness and creating a “common operating picture.”

While I applaud anything that can aid mitigation and recovery operations around major catastrophic incidents, frontline departments must first cover the day-to-day emergency services needs of your community, and for that you need “tactical” situational awareness.

The Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company (LVFC) in Maryland is one example of a department that is taking a tactical approach. Situational awareness has become especially topical for the department after the tragic loss of member Mark Falkenhan in a fire in January.

Taking the lead from a famous quote by Tip O’Neill, Lutherville’s Captain Steve Weatherby has stated that, “All disasters are local.” With that perspective, Lutherville’s campaign to enhance situational awareness is a continuum that starts in the firehouse, continues through response, and finishes only when everyone goes home. “Then we go and do it again, about 1,800 times a year,” said Weatherby.

Accordingly, Weatherby and his team have a three phase plan to improve their situational awareness. The mission of the campaign is to provide situational awareness tools to officers that will help improve decision making, enhance citizen and responder safety, reduce response times, and improve outcomes.

As an all-volunteer organization that is largely self-funded, LVFC is dependent on community support for funding. Phase 1 was completed largely thanks to generous support from a local A/V shop, a neighborhood computer store, and VueToo, a maker of situational awareness software.

In phase one, Lutherville set up a donated 37” LCD screen in the radio room and used VueToo software to begin receiving video images from four highway web cams covering the “first due,” sections of the entanglement of two interstates (I-83 & I-695) where Lutherville runs between 200-250 calls per year. The VueTOO software can present up to sixteen panels of visual information from anywhere onto a single screen. Click here to see one of Lutherville’s VueTOO pages.

The next phase will entail capturing LVFC’s calls on LCD screens located in the engine bays and radio room. Automatically upon receipt of a call, the LCD would switch to a display that would show call type, box number, address, apparatus needed, and the caller’s comments/special hazards. The LCD would simultaneously display hydrant location and other basic map info.

Phase III would bring tablets into the rigs. If all goes according to plan, those tablets will initially display real-time 911/dispatch, box maps, and turn directions. Eventually additional dynamic information will be added, such as hydrant status, pre-fire plans, weather reports, traffic conditions, and more.

“By visualizing the incident information and updates from 911, our responders will be better prepared,” Weatherby explains of the initiative. “Hopefully we will ultimately be able to track the status and location of local and mutual aid responding units and identify the status of assets available from elsewhere. However, getting that data is always challenging – we’re not quite there yet.”

About the Author
Michael Walker is a 21-year member of Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company, and represents VueTOO and ADASHI. You can contact Michael at wirelesswalker@yahoo.com.

Media

Search