Firefighter Sentinel System

The Firefigher Sentinel System is supported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI) promises to be the first self-contained system that tracks first responders both indoors and outdoors with the required precision.

The Firefigher Sentinel System provides the incident commander with crucial information regarding each firefighters situational and positional information, providing a vital tool for decision making, targeted at saving lives.

The Firefighter Sentinel System consists of three main components:

  1. Base Station -  a PC or laptop that displays live information regarding the state of responder personell
  2. Tracking Beacon  - a small pager-sized device that is worn as equipment on the person to be tracked
  3. Communications Unit - a small radio that is also worn to relay information from the beacon to the base station

Each of these components is described in more detail below.

  Incident Commander/Battalion Chief Base Station

  • Provides accurate and up-to-date location of responders inside a structure.
  • Functions as monitor that detects and alerts operators to personnel in distress.
  • Supports immediate two-way alarm notification in case of imminent danger.
  • Provides automatic data logging for replay, post-analysis and lessons learned.
  • Supports multicast distribution allowing data to be displayed simultaneously at an arbitrary number of command posts.

 

Firefighter Tracking Beacon 

  • A pager sized device that is worn as part of the firefighter's equipment.

  • Measures state information regarding the location and condition of the firefighter both inside and outside of building structures.


Communications Module

  • Communicates sensor information to base station.   
  • Also provides an emergency distress capability that a firefighter can depress to alert the team of imminent danger.

 

In a deployed system, the mobile units form an ad-hoc network controlled by a Base Station unit housed on a ruggedized laptop. This laptop displays each firefighter's location and vital statistics (heart rate, temperature, etc.) on TRX Systems' Graphical User Interface.