With 24 fireground deaths last year in the US, fighting fires continues to be a risky undertaking. Incident Commanders charged with the safety of personnel need to be constantly aware of who is on the fireground and their status, which is why personnel accountability is getting more attention.
Now expanded to support ASTRO 25 trunking systems, APX Personnel Accountability automates the accountability process. Using the existing ASTRO 25 two-way radio system, the solution monitors the P25 radio, and by extension the firefighter, to gain an understanding of each firefighter’s status without the need to wear additional equipment or deploy additional systems. Because the solution supports multiple clients, Fire Chiefs and dispatchers can maintain the same situational awareness anywhere with a broadband connection.
Monitoring Radio Traffic to Gain Intelligence
By monitoring the control channel for radio registrations, affiliations and PTT activity, the solution can know who is engaged in an incident, who is talking and who pressed the emergency button. The information is displayed in a single screen view on a laptop or tablet for Incident Commander. And if someone is on the wrong talkgroup, the Incident Commander can see that and has the option to remotely change the radio to the correct talkgroup to ensure they can communicate with the team.
Issuing Tactical Alerts
With APX Personnel Accountability, manual roll-calls can be a thing of the past. The Incident Commander can issue a roll-call alert to verify the status of each firefighter. For reliability, alerts are sent simultaneously over the control, data and voice channels and played at the radio at full volume. Firefighters can acknowledge an alert with a simple hit on their PTT button, which is then updated on the Incident Commander’s screen. The Incident Commander can take action for anyone who has not acknowledged the alert. Up to 16 customizable tactical alerts provide situational updates and evacuation commands in less than one second. The structured acknowledgements prevent RF congestion and ensure acknowledgements get through.
APX Personnel Accountability is supported on ASTRO 25 trunking and conventional configurations. Learn more about ASTRO 25 at www.motorolasolutions.com/ASTRO25.
Watch the video to see APX Personnel Accountability in action.
