An alert database in Fishers, Ind., provides police officers, firefighters and EMTs personal information, like whether there’s an elderly citizen who’s homebound or a child with autism who is upset by the sound of sirens, in advance of reporting to an emergency.
“As much information as we can gather prior to arrival, the better prepared we are for what situations may occur,” says Fishers Fire Department Captain John Mehling.
Through the Special Needs Data System, citizens voluntarily can provide first responders with specific information about disabilities or a medical situation, such as blindness or mobility issues. Dispatchers send details to the computers in emergency vehicles while they’re en route.
Mehling says that all personal information is protected: Only the responding personnel have access. And the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ensures data privacy and security for safeguarding medical information.
So far, a few hundred citizens have enrolled in the registry.
Still, some have mixed feelings about the database since it labels residents with certain conditions.
One downside could arise when a family moves and doesn’t update the information in the system to alert responders about the change, which would cause officials to prepare for a scenario that no longer exists at a certain location, says Denise Saxman, program director for the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Indiana Chapter.
“I can truly see the benefit to the families who are very worried about their loved ones, and I can see the benefit to the first responders,” says Saxman. “At least they seem to be coming at this from a, ‘Let’s make the best use of our time in an emergency situation with people who may be at more risk.’”
The idea developed out of a roundtable discussion held earlier this year in which the participants sought ways to make their community more accessible and inclusive and was implemented in March. A resident can choose to remove the information from the system at any time.
Other communities, including Bloomington, Ind., and the state of Illinois, have also implemented a similar database.
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Tag: first-responders
Artificial Intelligence Protects First Responders, How Birth Control Is Stopping the Spread of Disease and More
This NASA-Developed A.I. Could Help Save Firefighters’ Lives, Smithsonian Magazine
Disorienting scenes where a single move can be deadly is a common experience for both space rovers and firefighters. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built an artificial intelligence system for navigating unfamiliar landscapes, is sharing its technology with fire departments — warning first responders about hazards they might not notice in the smoke and flames.
Man v. Rat: Could the Long War Soon Be Over? The Guardian
A New York City subway rat carries a host of dangerous contagions, and its reproductive capacity — up to 15,000 offspring in a year — spread disease through city sewers and alleyways. A biotech startup in Flagstaff, Ariz., has developed a humane way to deal with Gotham’s infestation where rat poison has failed: birth control.
Generational Poverty: Trying to Solve Philly’s Most Enduring Problem, Philadelphia Magazine
Can Mattie McQueen, an unemployed 52-year-old raising three grandchildren in a largely unfurnished apartment, escape the destitution that’s dogged her ancestors since the postbellum years? One Philadelphia nonprofit is using what’s being called a “two- generation” model to assuage her financial stresses to make space for the children’s learning.
This Community Wants Veterans as Residents, So It’s Providing the Down Payment on New Houses
In Braidwood, a town of about 5,000 people in northern Illinois, sit vacant dilapidated homes and empty lots full of weeds growing taller than fire hydrants. The roads are so rough and pothole-riddled that the post office threatened to cut off delivery.
Back in 2009, a developer started construction on a new housing subdivision — the Townes of Braidwood — but filed for bankruptcy before its completion. This left those who’d already purchased houses in a major jam, so the homeowners appealed to their town for help.
This year, the village of Braidwood finally purchased the vacant lots in the subdivision and came up with a plan to fill them and stabilize the neighborhood. And it’s a good one: They’re offering to supply the down payment on a home for any veteran or first responder that wants one.
Through the Illinois program Welcome Home Heroes, Braidwood will give veterans who want to buy a lot in the subdivision a $10,000 state-funded grant, and any firefighters, police officers, or other first responders will be provided a $7,000 grant. According to Jessica Bourque of the Morris Daily Herald, all veterans in Illinois can receive an $18,000 grant to be put toward housing on top of the $10,000 that Braidwood is offering.
Restoration America, a nonprofit that helps revitalize abandoned properties, will build 35 new houses in the subdivision that will first be offered to veterans and emergency responders, though anyone can purchase them.
Braidwood Mayor Bill Rulien told Bourque, “Veterans, as a group, are people that are good at volunteering, that are good at teamwork, that will help their neighbors. They are people you want in your community.”
Braidwood is located 18 miles south of Joliet, Illinois, where the new Edward Hines Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic has just been completed. Charles Konkus of Restoration America told Bourque, “Our goal here is to get veterans into new housing and have them serviced by the new veterans hospital in Joliet.”
Rulien and Konkus will visit nearby veterans events in the coming months to let former soldiers know about the housing available to them. And with any luck, the once-beleaguered Townes of Braidwood will become a great place to live in.
Watch These Amazing Firefighters Lift a Truck to Save an 86-Year-Old Man
There’s so much to be said about the strength of firefighters. As the Huffington Post reports, a group of first responders saved the life of a Fairfield, Connecticut man who was pinned between his pickup truck and his garage.
According to reports, 86-year-old Franc Us was stuck for two hours in his garage before his cries for help were heard by his neighbors and notified the authorities. An emergency response team of about seven firefighters, paramedics and police showed up.
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As you can see in footage below caught by DoingIT Local.com, the team decided that the best way to free the man was by simply lifting the truck with their bare hands — no fancy equipment necessary. The man was taken to the hospital for his injuries and has reportedly been listed in critical condition.
According to a press release from the Fairfield Fire Department, the team contemplated “… multiple options… to free the trapped elderly man, but it was low-tech brute strength teamwork with the assistance of on scene Police officers that helped free the patient.”
Clearly the firefighters’ skills go way beyond putting out hot flames.
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Meet the Volunteers Feeding the Washington Mudslide Rescuers
Ever since a devastating mudslide hit Oso, Washington last week, rescue and recovery teams have been working hard to comb through the ruins. To date, the death toll has climbed to 28, with another 20 people still missing.
But it’s in these times of disaster that we are reminded of the incredible generosity and compassion of others.
As NBC News reports, a hardworking group of volunteers known as The Soup Ladies are providing fresh, homecooked meals such as Stroganoff over rice and chicken casseroles to fill the bellies of rescuers working at the site. According to their Twitter account, the group is now cooking 500 to 600 meals a day.
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For 10 years, this nonprofit has been sending meals to rescue workers at disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. But as the Good News Network notes, this time, the Arlington, Washington nonprofit is helping the responders right in their own backyards, as the Oso mudslide happened a mere 70 miles away.
“I would never want to do their job,” volunteer Ginger Passarelli told NBC News. “But I can cook.”
Regular people doing extraordinary things for people who need it most? Sounds pretty heroic to us.
If you want to help the Soup Ladies with their cause, go on this site to donate.
How Google Glass Can Fight Fires
For firefighters on the front lines, time is always of the essence. With that in mind, Patrick Jackson, a firefighter and self-taught programmer from Rocky Mount, N.C., has designed an application for Google Glass that can feed first-responders the information they need to quickly and effectively assess the scene of a fire or accident, without needing to use another device, such as a smartphone or radio. “I’ll hear a little notification and can look up into the top corner of my vision and see a map of where [the fire] is,” Jackson told CNN about his program. “I see the location of the incident and what type of call it is.”
The first iteration of Jackson’s app performs minor tasks, such as receiving dispatch messages, identifying nearby hydrants or mapping the location of incidents. But Jackson doesn’t plan on stopping there. He’s working on adding even more data in the near future, such as the ability to access buildings’ blueprints, contact info for owners and specs of vehicles. And while Google Glass isn’t yet compatible with firefighting gear, small tweaks to the design of oxygen masks and helmets could allow responders to record video and take pictures with the device, which could be an important tool for investigations.
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Jackson, who studied computer science before transferring to the University of North Carolina, Asheville, to attend the environmental management and policy program, is also the creator of the popular Android app Firefighter Log, which similarly pushes key information about emergency incidents directly to smartphones. To get his hands on the highly coveted Google Glass, Jackson entered Google’s IfIHadGlass competition, then raised money for the app’s development through Indiegogo. After all that work, the app is getting noticed, and Jackson hopes it will be available within the next six months (before Google Glass is even released to the public) in order to help firefighters across the country save more lives.
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