Fighting fires with new technology

Battalion Chief Steve Holtmeier of the Jefferson City Fire Department shows how he is able to keep track of firefighters inside a building using a new system.
Battalion Chief Steve Holtmeier of the Jefferson City Fire Department shows how he is able to keep track of firefighters inside a building using a new system.

The Jefferson City Fire Department is using new technology to keep firefighters safer while under the heat.

For about a year firefighters have used a tracking system on their air packs which can be seen by incident commanders with a laptop computer at the fire scene.

These devices allow the commander to track how much air the firefighters have in their air packs and notify them when their air packs are running low and they need to come out.

It also tracks the firefighters' movements, and if a firefighter doesn't move for 30 seconds it sends a signal to the commander to let them know the firefighter needs to be checked on.

"It's really changed the way we have done our firefighting efforts compared to what we did 30 years ago," Interim Fire Chief Jason Turner said.

The system uses badges to keep track of where the fire fighters are inside the building,

In case of impending collapse in a building, the system also allows the man monitoring the system to warn his fellow fighters to get out of the structure. The fire fighters can then respond and relay that they're evacuating.