A structure fire breaks out in an urban area. Onlookers frantically dial 911 and calls are directed to various call centers. First responders from all over are deployed to the scene of the fire. Organized chaos is the only way to describe it. But how do emergency managers and first responders keep people, resources and equipment from multiple agencies and jurisdictions organized during an emergency?

The solution for the North Metro Fire Rescue District in Colorado was Salamander Technologies’ interTrax Personal Identity Verification (PIV) system, which helps coordinate efforts at an incident such as the one mentioned above. With personnel and resources coming from various neighboring jurisdictions, it’s important to keep track of what exactly is needed and what’s available.

The Salamander system included six handheld bar-code scanners, networking equipment, the Command PIV software and RapidTag PIV system. Bar-code labels, which were created by the system’s badge-making software, were given to all personnel and apparatus — upon arrival the incident commander can scan the labels. The bar codes, which are on the identification cards of each first responder, include name and rank as well as qualifications and abilities. The RapidTag system also allows the incident commander to make identification tags on the fly during an emergency or event for people outside their agency. This important feature is necessary to maintain control of who has access to an incident. The handheld scanners feed information to the Command PIV system, which produces a simple graphic depiction of the resources assigned to the incident.

The Command software also is equipped with a countdown timer, which reminds the incident commander to do accountability headcounts on scheduled intervals and requires that the headcounts be completed before moving on to other tasks.

“The system just works,” said Capt. Ross Riley of the North Metro Fire Rescue District in Northglenn, Colo. “It was designed by people familiar with how first responders do their jobs, and they know how to integrate things to make that job easier.”

North Metro Fire has used the system at planned events, such as the state Republican convention, and a major music festival where more than 125 first responders were tracked each day.

“I like that I can hand a firefighter a handheld scanner and they are able to start working with it with only minimal training,” Riley said.

The next step in utilizing the system to its fullest capacity is to integrate the patient-tracking piece. The feature will allow agencies to better track which facilities patients are sent to from a major incident as well as generate total patient counts and time stamps on all completed tasks.
 

[Photo courtesy of Bryan Dahlberg/FEMA.]