Smart Fire Fighting

Definition
'''Smart Fire Fighting” refers to all areas of fire protection engineering and fire service emergency response. All phases of these endeavors (i.e., pre-incident, during-incident, and post-incident) are addressed. The idea of Smart Fire Fighting is to exploit fully the power of information to address the nation's fire problems through enhanced data gathering, data processing, and targeted communications. Smart Fire Fighting will transform traditional fire protection and fire-fighting practices to ensure the flow of critical information where and when it is needed.

Overview
An evolving range of databases and sensor networks will be tapped to create, store, exchange, analyze, and integrate information into critical knowledge for the purpose of Smart Fire Fighting. Engineering, developing, and deploying these systems will require new measurement tools and standards. Information will come from many sources: from the community, from building occupants, from the building itself, and from fire fighters. Data from the community could include informa­tion about traffic, weather, police, and hospitals. Information from the building could include annotated computer-aided design models or blueprints about the architecture, materials, and utilities, and details on fire-related building sensors and equipment. Occupants might be able to provide information about the number, age, and condition of people in the building and any relevant health issues. At the first indication of a fire incident, the incident commander (IC) could use information from these repositories to plan an initial strategy for suppression and rescue and alert the necessary community services. That strategy would include the number and types of equipment and personnel needed at the fireground and the tactics that should be executed when they arrive.

Once the equipment and personnel are on scene, a temporary wireless network could be set up, deploying a number of different sensor technologies to obtain a comprehensive and accurate assessment of the evolving situation on the fireground. The sensors and the network would continue to operate as needed throughout the entire event. This streaming, real-time information would be transmitted to the IC, who would develop an operational plan as appropriate and issue commands.