Is this the future of first responder fire protection?
The US Army showed off it's big acronyms today with the anouncement of RMCS developed by CERDEC's S&TDC division. Big names aside, this is very cool stuff, makes us wonder how this will work with NIST's IBR program.
The First Responder – Response Mobile Communications System, developed by CERDEC’s Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD), is a rapidly deployable communications system that provides wireless connectivity, situational awareness and 3-D location and tracking in the absence of a fixed communications infrastructure.
The RMCS monitors vital signs of responding personnel and provides the incident commander cognitive oversight of the responders’ environmental conditions. It also delivers voice communications and live high-quality video to the incident commander and headquarters coordinating the operation.
“Not since the introduction of the portable defibrillator, thermal imaging cameras and night vision devices has a technology of this scale been introduced,” said John C. Erichsen, Fort Monmouth fire chief. “First responders will be able to be directed by a central unit who at the same time is monitoring other information vital to the task at hand. This will truly save the lives of both first responders and the victims they are trying to save.”
Future mobile ad-hoc networks? As we like to say "the network is the security system."
Location, location, location! Sensing the state of a device is one thing, knowing where it is, is better. There are lots of companies running at this space, Pango, Ekahau and AeroScout are making big splashes. Interesting announcement from AeroScout regarding tracking location of miners.
Halon fire extinguisher are a specialty type of fire extinguisher that contain a gas that interrupts the chemical reaction that takes place when fuels burn. This type of fire extinguisher is often used to protect valuable electrical equipment since they leave no residue.
Halons are fire extinguishing agents which are gaseous when discharged and are extremely popular in the aircraft industry, as well as in certain technology marketplaces because Halons are electrically non-conducting. Halons are in almost universal use in aircraft fire extinguishers.. They exist in two forms:
Halon 1211 is used only in portable extinguishers and is a streaming agent. A halon fire extinguisher has a limited range, usually 4 to 6 feet
Halon 1301 is used only in fixed extinguisher installations and is a total flooding agent.This type of extinguisher is commonly found in computer server rooms and clean rooms.
According to SkyBrary, a wiki focused on aviation safety:
Both Halon variants work by a combination of chemical and physical effects. The chemical effects, which are dominant in their overall effect, are achieved by the atoms in the gas directly inhibiting combustion in two different ways:
Bromine, Iodine and Chlorine atoms act catalytically so that each atom participates repeatedly in the scavenging of important free radicals from the combustion gases.
Fluorine atoms react with free radicals and form strong chemical bonds which neutralise combustion but can only do so once and are then “consumed.” The physical effects are both temperature reduction and dilution.
Temperature reduction occurs, whenever a non-reactive gas is added to a flammable gas, because the heat liberated by the reaction of oxygen molecules with a fuel source must be distributed into the overall environment. The rate of the combustive chemical reaction decreases rapidly with reductions in temperature and, if the concentration of added inert gas is high enough, the flame chemistry fails altogether.
Halon gas mixtures are not only inert but of low temperature when released from their pressurised state. Dilution is a simple matter of reducing the collision frequency of the oxygen and fuel source so that there is a reduction in chemical reaction rates. The magnitude of this effect, however, is relatively small compared to chemical inhibition and thermal effects, the former of these being the predominant one.
The chemical consituents in Halon gases, and the products of the reactions they produce when used to fight fires, have been identified as causing damage to the Ozone layer. Halon is still in use today, but is falling out of favor for many uses due to its environmental impact. Europe, and Australia have severely restricted its use, since the Montreal Protocol of 1987. It is however still in use in the United States, the Middle East, and Asia in limited ways. Since the Montreal Protocol Halon is one of the only ozone depleting chemicals with concentrations still rising, due to the release of fire extinguishing equipment already deployed.
A few 'clean agent' alternatives have been appearing on the market as an alternative to Halon extinguishers, including:
Halotron I extinguishers, like carbon dioxide units, are "clean agents" that leave no residue after discharge. Halotron I is less damaging to the Earth's ozone layer than Halon 1211 (which was banned by international agreements starting in 1994). This "clean agent" discharges as a liquid, has high visibility during dischage, does not cause thermal or static shock, leaves no residue and is non-conducting. These properties make it ideal for computer rooms, clean rooms, telecommunications equipment, and electronics. These superior properties of Halotron I come at a higher cost relative to carbon dioxide.
FE-36TM (Hydrofluorocarbon-236fa or HFC-236fa) is another "clean agent" replacement for Halon 1211. This DuPont-manufactured substance is available commercially in Cleanguard® extinguishers. The FE-36 agent is less toxic than both Halon 1211 and Halotron I. In addition, FE-36 has zero ozone-depleting potential; FE-36 is not scheduled for phase-out wheras Halotron I production is slated to cease in 2015. A 100% non-magnetic CleanGuard model is now available.
Fire Extinguisher cannisters have been used as bombs more often than we would like to think. In Thailand, a country that has been hit hard by violence since 2004, there have over 250 occurences of fire extinguisher being used as improvised explosive devices according to Thailand's Bomb Data Center.
According to the BDC, there have been 1,987 bomb attacks since the re-emergence of violence in the South in 2004.
All the bombs were homemade.
Pol Maj Gen Saritchai said 674 of those bombs were found to be assembled in metal boxes, 253 were in fire extinguisher canisters, 169 were in metal water pipes, 95 were in plastic water pipes and 65 were in cooking gas canisters.
This video provides insight into just how powerful even a small bomb inside a fire extinguisher can be. Imagine a 50 pound commercial extinguisher exploding in a crowded area.
Fire Extinguisher Bombs are a real and proven threat that is growing around the world, even here in the United States. In order to ensure that fire extinguishers are not tampered with and that they do not fall into the hands of terrorists, fire extinguishers must be monitored 24 / 7 / 365 with an electronic fire extinguisher monitoring system.
The last thing we want to wake up to is a story of a fire extinguisher bomb going off in a crowded train station, airport or stadium.
Big blue purchased Boston based MRO software this week for $740 million, giving IBM a deeper opportunity to monitor the data coming in from facility networks.
MRO, based in Bedford, Mass., makes software that companies use to monitor the location and operation of all kinds of equipment, including airplanes, train cars, trucks, automobiles and power plants.
Sarcasm reigns at Security Sales and Integration. With the title: "Burglar Alarm Systems Booooring? Pleeease!" it's clear from the outset where writer Bob Dolf believer’s the security market is headed and it can be summed up in one word, networks.
