Communication support vehicle a new weapon in WA firefighters’ arsenal

Communication support vehicle a new weapon in WA firefighters’ arsenal

02 July 2017

Australia – WA firefighters have unveiled the latest weapon in their arsenal to battle bushfires.

It cant douse flames or protect homes, but the communication support vehicle arguably plays a more crucial role keeping the lines of communication open for fire chiefs, and firefighters and volunteers in the field.

The van works like a giant hot spot, ensuring mobile phone and internet communications at a bushfire, regardless of how remote the location is or if local infrastructure, powerlines and mobile towers have been destroyed by flames or overrun with demand.

It is packed with a server rack, four PCs, cellular router, satellite controller, modem and workstations for two operators, each with two screens. The powerful computers in the van can also process live video streaming from helicopters above or body cameras worn by firefighters to give the incident controller an exact picture of the fire.

Communication is key. In multiple reviews weve seen that communications are absolutely essential, Department of Fire and Emergency Services co-ordinator of operational resources Jon Kirk said.

For the incident management team during a fire, there are massive requirements for mapping, planning response sectors, sharing information, requesting further resources or giving and receiving situation reports and all of that requires communication.

Even if infrastructure isnt damaged, if you pull in 200 people to an incident, it very quickly overruns the cellular towers and thats where the communication support vehicles comes in.

Mr Kirk, a former mechanical engineer with 20 years in equipment development, has been in charge of the $500,000 communication support vehicle project.

After 12 months of testing, the vehicle will be used this summer in bushfires and missing person searches.

Existing command vehicles may also be retrofitted with some of the technology.

Over the past year its delivering and performing. Its mobile, very easy to use and its been highly utilised for fires and also missing people searches, Mr Kirk said.

The forest fire, which started on the night of June 24 and still smoldering in Spain’s southwestern region of Huelva, burned a total of 8,486 hectares, the Andalusian Regional Government said on Wednesday. Environmental spokesman for Andalusia, Jose Fiscal, confirmed the damage on his Twitter account. Over 2,000 people had had to be evacuated from hotels and campsites on the perimeter of the fire, he said. He added that the perimeter established around the fire was actually 10,900 hectares, but within that perimeter, 2,414 hectares of woodland were still intact. The fire damaged two protected areas: 6,761 hectares of Donana National Park, which has UNESCO protected status and is home to around 400 different species such as the threatened Iberian Lynx and Iberian Eagle, and 17 hectares of Laguna de Palos y Madres Nature Park. The Andalusian government believed that had it not been for the work of fire fighters, who at the height of the blaze numbered around 500, the damage would have been far worse for the 43,225 hectares of woods and scrubland. According to the regional government, temperatures were around 40 degrees Celsius when the fire began, with a wind-speed of between 30 and 40 km per hour (km/h) and gusts of up to 90 km/h at night, which helped propagate the flames and made it impossible to use aircraft or helicopters to fight the fire. A total of 50 firemen remain in the zone to continue the work of damping down and to ensure there are no flare ups, while investigations continue into the cause of the blaze. Authorities have not ruled out a human cause.
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/society/view/spanish-forest-fire-burns-over-8400-hectares-in-and-around-national-park-102857-2017/
If you use BelTAs materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.Tropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-peatlands-dwindling-losses.html#jCpTropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained.

2. July 2017/by GFMCadmin