By US Digital Designs Staff

Today’s mobile technology—smartphones, tablets and “phablets”—can you let you do almost anything. You can check stock prices, get instant news alerts, and post videos and status updates on social media. And, firefighters and first responders can even get mobile alerts when there’s an incident or emergency.

Yes, fire station alerting is going mobile. Customers of the US Digital Designs’ Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System can now get critical and live-incident fire station alerting information—both at the station and on their mobile devices—to help reduce response times.

Fire Station Alerting Mobile Technology is Evolving
Many fire department “old-timers” will entertain some of their newer crew members with stories from long ago. They may talk about how firefighters had no modern computer systems for getting emergency alerts from their dispatch centers and how they relied on alerts from only via two-way handheld radios. Even worse, departments in rural areas often had to rely on dialup phones to first responders’ homes. That situation made getting alerts via handheld radios seem high-tech. Radios and computerized/IP fire station alerting is still very much a critical way to notify responders of an incident, but it’s time that departments get up to speed and make use of current technology.

As we all know, verbal communication is much slower than written communication and is subject to user error by first responders who are responsible for taking the information communicated via handheld radio and passing it on to others based on their recollection. Combined with modern dispatch and alert systems like the Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System, smartphone and tablet technology applications can now provide instant verbal, written, and location alerts to multiple users, regardless of whether they are in the firehouse or on the road.

Fire Station Alerting Mobile Application Features
At US Digital Designs, we’ve stayed ahead of the curve in monitoring technology advancements and the impact they have on our industry. At present, although it seems as if anyone can put together an app and sell it via the Apple or Google online stores, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Many organizations want to be the first to market a unique idea and, as a result, have offered an inferior product.

We’ve given the concept of a mobile technology a lot of research and development over the last few years, to try and determine which features should/should not be included in such a product offering. We’ve also researched how to develop the back-end infrastructure so that it’s just as dependable as our in-quarters Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System—no matter what country or state it’s being used in. After a thoughtful analysis, we worked with our clients to prioritize what they felt should be the primary functionality of any mobile offering:

• The ability to receive simultaneous mobile alerts. Life is unpredictable and, more often than not, a first responder might have multiple incidents in which he is involved. An application that provides for concurrent alerts is critical.
• Hearing the same tones as the station. In addition to visual alerts, the mobile application should also allow users to hear information, including tones, so t

By Carl J. Haddon

In my rural Fire District, we have exactly one hydrant (dry) in a 240-square-mile response area. During the majority of the year, that doesn’t pose a terrible challenge as we are blessed with many ponds, streams, creeks, and the mighty Salmon River to draft water from. Our frozen winters create a whole new ball game as our water sources all freeze over, or freeze to the point where accessing the water in them is beyond hazardous to firefighters and apparatus alike.

Tenders and tankers help, but we all know that these fire apparatus are also limited in their effectiveness by their ability to access water to refill. Also creating a potential challenge is the determination of how badly given fire apparatus leak. (I know—fire engines don’t leak) By the way, if your department has one or more of those trucks that don’t leak but somehow flow water onto the ground when they’re not supposed to, now is the time of year to do what you can to stem those flows.

I’ve heard a number of rural departments considering turning to compressed-air foam systems (CAFS) to help stretch their water. I’m not expressly opposed to CAFS or the use of foam, however, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 11, Standard for Low-, Medium-, and High-Expansion Foam, tells us that foam is not suggested or recommended for use on three-dimensional fires, or on things like flowing fuel fires. If you’re going “by the book” and trying to follow NFPA standards, foams are then relegated to horizontal flat-surfaced fires, like airport runways. Foam certainly has its place, but remember what its capabilities are. For those on tighter budgets, also remember that once a jug of protein based foam is opened, it’s shot. My department also has a CAFS, but we’ve found it doesn’t get used enough to retain proficiency, and the time it takes for the volunteers to get it spun up for use is excessive.

While doing research for an article for my other column “To the Rescue,” I learned about rural fire departments batch mixing an encapsulator agent into their apparatus’ tanks and having enormous success with virtually instant knockdown and incredible burn back (rekindle) resistance. These departments tell me that using an encapsulator agent is like having “additional resources and manpower” in a five gallon jug. With this info in mind, I started doing a bit more research. I have used an encapsulator agent since the late 1990s, but my application was almost exclusively confined to major motorsport and super-speedway racing events.

What I learned about today’s encapsulator agents surprised me. Encapsulator agents are not Class A or Class B foam. They are not foam at all. Although listed in NFPA 18A, Standard on Water Additives for Fire Control and Vapor Mitigation, in the class of wetting agent, there is verbiage and specific criteria and field tests within the standard that separate encapsulator agents from wetting agents and foams. Albeit really interesting, there isn’t enough room in this column to explain the science and chemistry that explains how encapsulator agents work. I can tell you that fire department apparatus in Germany and throughout other parts of Europe have been required to use encapsulator agent for some time now and do so with fantastic success. I will follow this article up

The 10 finalists in contention for the international Conrad Dietrich Magirus Award have been chosen. Hailing from nine different countries, their missions are as diverse as their locations. They represent different team structures from volunteer fire departments to professional fire brigades and airport fire services.

After extensive deliberation, an expert jury has decided on the top 10 finalists. Now it is time to turn over the final vote for the Firefighting Team of the Year 2016 to the general public.

All are invited to learn more about the finalists' impressive missions at www.magirusgroup.de/award and to vote for their personal favorites from October 21 to December 11. By casting their votes, people around the world are taking the time to express their appreciation for the tireless dedication of fire brigades.

From major fires to complex rescue operations, fire brigades around the globe dedicate their lives to protecting the public 365 days a year. Magirus has presented deserving international fire brigades with the Conrad Dietrich Magirus Award since 2012. The goal of the award is to honor the work and courage of fire brigades around the world.

The jury was impressed by the high level of this year’s applications. “It was a quite tough decision for us this year because of the complexity and variety of the operations. However, I think we found 10 international firefighting teams, each of them showing exceptional commitment,” said Michel Bour, General Secretary of CTIF (the International Federation of Fire and Rescue Services), on behalf of the international jury. In addition to Bour, the jury consists of: Ann Marie Knegt, Editor-in-Chief of the English magazine Fire and Rescue, Hermann Kollinger from the Austrian fire brigade magazine Brennpunkt, Pietr Pajor, Vice-president of Firemax Sp. z o.o. from Poland, and Tristan Reitz, Magirus.

The evaluation process focused primarily on the quality of the missions, on the teamwork demonstrated and on the strategies used. The jury's extensive experience in the firefighting sector was crucial for evaluating the applications.

What the winners can look forward to

Magirus will invite the best finalists to the handover ceremony in Ulm, Germany on January 27, 2017. The top three finalists and the winners will be announced live at this event. The winning team will not only receive the coveted Conrad Dietrich Magirus Statue, the "Oscar of the fire-fighting world," they can also look forward to an once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York. During their stay they will meet their peers from the most famous fire brigade in the world, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), visit the "The Rock" training academy on Randall Island, and enjoy many more highlights that the city has to offer.

The 2016 Conrad Dietrich Magirus Award will be supported by key industry companies ENDRESS Elektrogerätebau, DÖNGES, and LUKAS/VETTER.

The ten finalists for the “International Firefighting Team of the Year 2016”:

• Volunteer Fire Department Altenmarkt near St. Gallen (Austria)
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