FireRESPOND ™ addresses fire emergencies for companies, schools, and other facilities seeking the highest level of fire protection available today.

To better understand what this system can do for you, it's important to see how things work in a typical fire emergency. When a fire breaks out in your building or facility, fire, smoke, or heat sensors detect the fire and engage an audible alarm. That alarms tells your employees, clients, or students to exit the area. It may also alert an alarm company or a 911 dispatcher that a fire is burning in your building. The dispatcher or alarm company contacts the fire department. Your building may also engage fire suppression devices like water sprinklers or halon gas, and it may lock down high risk areas like server rooms or chemical storage tanks. When the firefighters receive the alarm, they deploy to the scene, triage the building, locate the fire, prepare a plan for extinguishing the fire, then put out the fire. At the end of the emergency, the fire marshall declares the scene safe and secure. You begin the process of clean up and repair, and, when possible, your employees return to work.

Several problems exist with this current process.

• The fire, smoke, and heat sensors can only communicate that a fire may have been detected somewhere in the building, meaning:
  • The alarm may be false.
  • The firefighters responding to the scene do not know the location of the fire, so they must spend precious time locating the fire.
  • The sprinkler or fire suppression devices do not know the location of the fire, so they activate in the entire facility, damaging equipment, ruining property and paperwork, and wasting thousands of gallons of water.
• Communication with employees, clients, or students is limited to whatever directions an immediate supervisor, teacher, or staff person can pass to them face to face.
• Employees, clients, or students away from the facility are not made aware of the emergency, so they do not know to stay away from the facility.
• Supervisors cannot effectively manage the emergency, coordinate responses, and plan.

FireRESPOND ™ solves these problems with smart smoke, fire, and temperature sensors, motion detectors, live video feeds, and a comprehensive crisis management software package. When a fire is detected, the system directly notifies the fire department. The smart sensors only activate the fire suppression system in the area of the fire. As firefighters respond to the facility, they receive live data about that fire, like its temperature, location, and travel path. They can also view live video of the fire and the building. With this data, they can triage the building and prepare their plan for fighting the fire while deploying to the scene.

The integrated crisis management system allows you to communicate with your employees with a few keystrokes. This communication can go through email, phone, and cellphone. You can provide status updates to your employees, students, and clients, so they stay away from the facility until the emergency is resolved. You can also coordinate emergency recovery operations from a remote location.

The FireRESPOND ™ system comes with these components:

• System 3000 - This is the emergency information system at the heart of FireRESPOND ™. It contains the software and the network that connects the sensors, monitoring workstations, alarm panels, and external emergency responders.
• Crisis Commander - The crisis management and business continuity software package. You can read a detailed review of the system here. It includes the following features:
• Setup assistance for crisis management and business continuity managers.
• Ability to manage and activate business continuity plans.
• Advanced emergency notification system.
• Unlimited storage for contact lists.
• Integrated capability for rapid crisis communication.
• Automatic activity log.
• Log analyzing and filtering.
• Emergency web page.
• Meeting tool with loaded and dynamic agendas.
• Bulletin board for the crisis management team.
• System access using PCs and smart phones.
• Mission Control Center for handling of crises across organizations.
• Distribution system for sharing of plans within a group.
• Excellent administrative functions to simplify business continuity management maintenance.
• Automatic update scheduling feature.
• Video sensors - Used for displaying video images of the facility to alarm panels, monitoring workstations, and emergency responders.
• Motion sensors - Used to display movement of individuals through the facility.
• Secure Area Signaling Station (SASS) - One way communication device used by individuals in the building to notify the emergency first responders where they are and if they need medical assistance.
• Temperature and Smoke Sensors - Detect smoke in the building and record the air temperature. The temperature sensors shows whether a fire is in the area and if so, how hot it is burning.