CANON CITY, Colo. (CBS4)– Colorado wants to make sure firefighters in rural fire departments get the training they need, that’s why they’ve dispatched a new mobile training truck.

The truck is traveling around the state to fire departments that don’t have access to training resources.

This week the truck traveled to Canon City. The 53-foot trailer has different scenarios inside to simulate real life situations.

 

The Cougar Creek Fire, which is centered 21 miles northwest of Entiat, has now pushed past 40,000 acres in size. The wildfire’s current official acreage is listed at 40,105 after another day of minimal spread on Wednesday (August 22). The blaze has been moving predominantly to the west and north over the past week.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2018 10:42:20 AM - SOURCE: iFiberOne

EL CAJON (KPBS) - An increase in 911 calls is presenting a challenge for firefighters in El Cajon. To deal with the increase, Heartland Fire Rescue is employing a new cost-saving measure. Instead of buying a new engine, the department purchased a pickup truck and custom outfitted it.

"We’re not providing a lower level of service by any means," said Heartland Fire Rescue Engineer and Paramedic Mark Casey. "We’re just trying to do it as efficiently and as financially responsible as possible."

For the last six months, a two-man team has been using the squad truck to respond to an increase in calls for medical aid. Heartland Fire Rescue said 90 percent of its 911 calls are medically related — and those calls are increasing every year.

 

Incident Response Technologies, Inc. (IRT), a Denver-based company specializing in developing Web-based solutions for public safety responders, continues to rapidly gain momentum with their Rhodium Incident Management solution (Rhodium). In the first half of 2018, IRT achieved several key business milestones including record sales growth, the introduction of valuable product enhancements, and strategic hires in sales, software development and client success.

Many of IRT’s clients achieved significant successes by deploying Rhodium on high-profile events during the first half of the year, including Super Bowl LII. The software provides public safety organizations with an intuitive, cloud-based solution to improve the coordination of resources for first responders to emergency situations.

“We are very excited about the results from the first half of 2018,” said Jarret Winkelman, IRT’s President & CEO. “The momentum we are seeing allows us to deliver Rhodium’s capabilities to more organizations while also delivering on important enhancements to our existing users.”

Key Milestones Included:

Achieved Sales Records: IRT achieved record sales growth in the first half of 2018, with second quarter year-over-year sales bookings growing by 125%.

Product Enhancements: Dozens of new enhancements were introduced in the first half of 2018 including: increased mapping capabilities; added features to Rhodium’s robust set of electronic incident command system (ICS) forms; and improved computer aided dispatch (CAD) and global positioning system (GPS) interfaces.

New Hires: IRT completed several strategic hires in the first half of 2018 and continues to attract talent from the public safety and business communities. New hires included additional positions in sales development, software development, and client success roles.

Real-World Use: Rhodium was deployed by clients on numerous large-scale events in the first half of 2018, including: Super Bowl LII, multiple professional sporting events, marathons, New Years’ celebrations, and Fourth of July community celebrations.

IRT is a current client company of Innosphere, Colorado’s incubator for high-tech scaleup companies. “There is a clear need for the services Rhodium can provide across large and small public safety organizations,” said Mike Freeman, Innosphere CEO. “Their software is such a unique offering to public safety organizations across the nation struggling to continuously improve coordination and management of resources on the front line of fire, police, and emergency medical services.”

Visit IRT at www.irtsoftware.com.