Emergency scenes come in all sizes, but no matter how big or small, situational awareness on the scene is one key to firefighter safety. To enhance situational awareness and firefighter accountability, MSA Safety, Inc. has released FireGrid™ Map View, a software enhancement of MSA's LUNAR® Connected Device that enables tracking of a firefighter's estimated location when outside of a structure.
LUNAR is a handheld device that provides search and rescue capabilities for firefighters and serves as a personal thermal imaging camera.
GPS capabilities and coordinates
FireGrid Map View is accessible through FireGrid Monitor, MSA's tablet-based on-scene monitoring application. Map View shows a firefighter's approximate location as a color-coded marker, using a LUNAR device's GPS capabilities and coordinates.
Map View shows a firefighter's approximate location as a color-coded marker
In addition to seeing an individual firefighter's estimated location, a tap of a marker in Map View allows an incident commander to see additional firefighter information, including team assignment, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) air pressure, and alarm status.
If LTE cellular connection or GPS connection is lost, Map View will display the last known location of the firefighter. Incident commanders are also able to see the same information for a team of firefighters, allowing for better visualization of where team members are located and to help support the rapid decision making that occurs on scene. The three selectable views in Map View are street view, satellite and terrain.
Portable gas detectors
Map View is the latest enhancement to the MSA Connected Firefighter Platform, an ecosystem of products centered around the MSA G1 SCBA that includes LUNAR, FireGrid software, HUB, and ALTAIR® portable gas detectors. Together, the platform helps to keep firefighters safe, connected, and accounted for on the fireground.
Map View is now available as an update to the FireGrid Monitor application through the iOS and Google Play App stores. Compatible LUNAR devices will require a firmware update and to be registered to a FireGrid account.