FDNY Announces Possible GPS For Turnout Gear

[firecapt32 282]

FDNY has announced that it is looking into GPS for all it's turnout gear. It purpose is to keep track of personnel at fires. What do you think??will it work and why didnt I think of it!!!

[LCFD968 10]

I heard about it on saturday....

Its hard to say if its going to work. Think about what does GPS stand for. Global position system. All run by satellites, right? How is a satelite going to see where a FF is if they are in a basement of a forty story building fighting a fire? We cant even get XM radio in a tunnel and thats just a simple radio frequency.

If the worked out that issue then it might work.

I also heard that the person and/or persons that came out with this did so prior to 2001 and had lots of trouble getting through the right channels to get it approved...

[nycemt728 49]

Think this is one of those things thats sounds great in theory but just simply cannot/will not be viable in reality. If I turn out to be wrong, great...anything to increase saftey and reduce LODDs/ LODIs!!

[Guest]

Out of curiosity has any type of gps system been tested under fire conditions?

[IzzyEng4 427]

Ummm that is nearly impossible since GPS still is not pin-point accurate and there is still a default on most systems between 10 to 100 feet. The technology is there but it is not accurate nor has it been fully tested and is still in development.

When it does get to that pin-point accuracy then it would be a most beneficial tool but so is supervision.

[weaselff 6]

You guys make good points. My guess is someone in 9 Metrotech is in bed with someone at the GPS company and that individual is laughing all the way to the bank. Sounds like a similar situation that EMS had when implementing the E-PCR.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

If it works great.............but first it has to be a little more accurate as location goes because a difference of 5 feet can lead to 2 more fire fighters being in a different room and having even more problems

and also how would they know where the fire fighter was if they were in a building aka what floor because it would be no help in locating the fire fighterr unless it also said height but then there might be problems with the exact height of each floor as well as how does it factor in the possibility that the fire fighter might have been in a floor collapse for location

[Guest partyrock]

Its not GPS. Its pretty much an RFID tag. The device curently proposed is to be used to track which ff's are on an apperatus when it is responding. It would also be used during a roll call. FF's would report to an apperatus or a designated area where a reciever would pick-up each tag. Its an improved accountability system. The current system is dependent on hand-written cards that need to be updated each tour. You catch a job during tour change and no one would know who is actually on the rig god forbid something happens. The accountability problems Sept 11th are the major push behind this.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Oh thats sounds like a better system...........the tag was mounted on the apparatus it could know one was on what rig as well

it sounds like a great system that should be but in service everywhere which surrounding department member signature listed for use on mutual aid calls or firefighters that respond with other departments

[xfirefighter484x 234]

The RFID system would seem to make a bit more sense. Anyone who has even tried to use ANY GPS system inside anywhere, it seems to not pick up the satellites (at least in the instances I have noticed). This would seem to put quite a damper if no one could even be able to get a signal from a satellite to transmit back to command.