In a recent blog post, we discussed how connectivity can help to improve firefighter safety and what innovations in technology can take connectivity from the fireground to the cloud for even more benefits.

Another key element in firefighter safety is accountability.

Accountability means different things in fire service – understanding air management to properly deploy and evacuate firefighters at the right time, knowing who is on scene, who is in alarm, and how long an incident has occurred. But the common thread at the center of all of this, is that accountability means visibility of every person on the fireground.

Oftentimes the tools it takes to deploy an accountability system can be cumbersome, requiring significant time and infrastructure to enable. That’s why technology is so important for accountability. For an accountability system to be approachable, it should provide accessible and actionable data through a user-friendly interface. The solution should be easy to configure and provide value after the scene has ended.

With advancements in technology, accountability in fire service can go beyond how we think of it today, extending to:

• Visibility Of All Users
  • With technology in the palm of every firefighter’s hand, those wearing and not wearing SCBA can be alerted if a firefighter’s motion is not detected and allow those on the fireground to find separated teammates faster.
• Equipment Maintenance
  • Inventory and tech management is another level of accountability. With the right technology that provides data about each piece of equipment, inventory managers can determine whether the equipment given to each firefighter passes inspection and meets the requirements to keep that firefighter safe.
• Incident Reporting
  • Post-scene, accountability can translate to the data collected from each incident and relying on that data to help inform common or consistent issues across fire events themselves or performance of individuals on-scene, all to better inform the process for future incidents.

With LUNAR from MSA, these tech elements are all wrapped into one LTE-enabled device that each firefighter can have at all times. As part of the MSA Connected Firefighter Platform, LUNAR provides the tools to promote accountability in the traditional sense, while expanding to other areas on- and off-scene as well, to ultimately support firefighter safety.

Learn more about LUNAR and the MSA Connected Firefighter Platform here.