Citation

Abulhassan Y, DeMoulin D. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet. 2017; 61(1): 1702-1705.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1541931213601914

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Locating injured firefighters is critical in immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) environments where they can be overcome by smoke, or exposed to other environmental stressors. Auditory and visual communication technologies such as Personal Alert Safety System (PASS) devices and radio communications are often used to locate firefighters entering IDLH environments. However, the reliability of these communication methods can be detrimental in pinpointing the location of an injured firefighter due to unconsciousness, disorientation, or unfamiliarity with the layout of the building. The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of visibility conditions, rescuer familiarity with the search area, and search and rescue method on the time needed to locate victims in an IDLH environment.

RESULTS of the study indicated that time needed to locate victims could be significantly reduced when using a radio frequency identification (RFID) based real time locating method compared to a traditional grid search rescue method.

Language: en