How a new tech tool keeps Arizona wildland firefighters safer than before
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — New technology created by a group of brothers is aiming to keep firefighters safer than before following the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters.
The brothers created a GPS device that can track fire crews and improve communication with them.
When wildland firefighters go out on fire, it can be hard to reach them at times and know where they are in remote areas with no cell service. With this new technology, crew leaders know precisely where crews are.
“I asked my brother, who is a 27-year wildland firefighter, how could this tragedy occur? My brother said Rod, in firefighting, we are still using paper maps, compasses and two-way radios, so the lack of technology surprised me,” said Rod Goossen, the CEO and Founder of RoGo Communications.
In June 2013, 19 firefighters died in the Yarnell Hill fire outside of Prescott after an extreme and sudden shift in weather patterns caused the fire to intensify and cut off the firefighter’s route as they were escaping. Crews had a hard time getting out and had problems with radio communications.
The tragedy kicked off an idea for Goossen and his brother, a longtime firefighter. They created DropBlocks, a device that wildland fire crews take with them on fires.
The battery—or solar-powered device tracks GPS location, letting crew leaders at the incident post essentially have eyes and ears 24/7 on their crews.
It also provides real-time weather data that is sent back to incident meteorologists working on the fires.
“So we all we know where everybody’s at, we know what the fire weather is doing and we know who’s in possible danger,” he said.
The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management tested this technology in 2023. Based on their experience, they gave feedback to Goossen, who has made some changes.
“We implemented it with 13 of our hand crews,” said Tiffany Davila, the agency’s public affairs officer. “It was probably the size of a lunchbox, so they were carrying that around with them on fires. One of those pieces of feedback was, not that they’re hard to carry by any means, but they’re just larger than they should be.”
The newer, updated device is now much smaller and easier for fire crews to carry. Davila says this is another very important tool in their toolbox that could save lives.
“And it is real time communication, real time mapping, so we can get on our computer, pull up their locations, and that’s real time, not delayed by 30 minutes or 45.”
Goossen says the devices have been deployed across six states. Arizona State Forestry still has the older, larger devices but is working to get the newer, smaller versions in its hands.
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