Chris Mc Loone
It’s funny sometimes when you contrast some of what is shared on social media. One post might be a picture of five firefighters on the back step of a rig, with the comment to share “if you’ve ever done this.”
And, then there are the posts from dash cams or tiller cams that everyone enjoys. Another post might be the one where an animated video shows a truck that straddles the center lines of a street with the entire truck extending upward to fight an upper-floor fire. Or, there’s a post about a drone that can carry a patient to a hospital. Past, present, and future. The past was the present for someone once and reflects what was available at that moment in time. Just about everything we see presently or are predicting in the future is a result of technology.
We’ll get into more technology specifics in a future issue, but having just completed FDIC International 2018, I thought it was a good time to bring it up, especially in light of the “Emerging Technologies Summit and Pavilion” that took place during the week.
Very often we think of technology as what’s going on with the trucks or some of our handheld equipment. Think of thermal imaging cameras (TICs). Remember, the past was the present for someone at some point, and I remember clearly early TICs that were mounted to helmets, often as a standalone helmet to be worn by a specifically assigned member of a crew. Twenty to 25 years later, we hook them to our personal protective equipment or our self-contained breathing apparatus and hold them in our hand. And on the trucks, we’re seeing touch screens on the pump panels and more technology in the cab—take a look at some of the electronic dashboards that are out there, two of which were introduced at FDIC International by different manufacturers.
But, the realm of technology encompasses so much more, and it’s not confined to only our fire apparatus. Although not pervasive yet, telemetry is going to play a greater and greater role as we move into the realm of smart cities. Systems that will alert drivers that we are approaching via apps will also communicate with traffic signal systems in a more sophisticated way than how we control traffic signals today. Augmented reality will aid in training, and some systems will be able to provide 3D imagery of incidents before, during, and after we take up. When thinking about technology and its impact on the fire service, remember to think beyond the rig.
Dash Cams
On the subject of dash cams, one department recently faced questions about why a dash cam in one of its rigs was not recording at the time of what became a fatal accident. This is not a Monday morning quarterback moment for a rig that was involved in a tragic accident. But, it’s a reminder that if your department uses dash cams, it needs to have a policy regarding their use and really should discourage their use unless formalized in some way.
At another fire department, a firefighter was being investigated for his helmet cam catching a victim being removed through a window and subsequent lifesaving efforts, possibly violating the department’s medical privacy policy.
This is not to say that dash cam use is bad. Often, it keeps drivers and officers honest as they respond to a call and, of course, can be very valuable during an accident investigation. However, if it was not recording as intended, as was the case with the fatal crash involving a fire apparatus mentioned above, it will call into question why, for how long, and why no one was notified after discovering the malfunction.
Technology as sophisticated as what we saw at the Emerging Technologies Summit and Pavilion is coming, and it is probably going to change the back end of fire departments and municipalities overall. As it begins to roll out, fire department personnel, no matter what level, would be wise to learn as much as possible. Responding and operating on the fireground are about to be more sophisticated than we can imagine.
