Fire Brigade utilising tech to fight and prevent blazes

In a bid to enhance fire safety and improve survival rates in the face of emergencies, the Jamaica Fire Brigade has taken a digital approach to equip citizens against fire-related threats.

The initiative was launched yesterday at the start of the Fire and Life Safety Awareness Week, under the theme 'Fire Safety in a Digital Society'. Recent data from the 2022 Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica revealed that in December 2021, there were more than three million telephone subscribers among a population of approximately 2.8 million. Dr Tanya Kerr, the leader of the Mona Fire Research Group at the Department of Physics at the University of the West Indies, opined that this proves "we have increased our fire risks".

"If we consider one household, it perhaps has four cell phones, possibly tablets and laptops. We charge them and sometimes go to bed or our children will do it so we are all at risk," she said.

Kerr strongly recommended the use of smoke alarms, citing research that shows they can double one's chances of escaping a fire.

"It buys you time. You heard that I worked at the forensic lab for a long time and the most devastating thing for me was to find out that somebody was found right in a doorway almost out of there [the fire]," she shared.

Fire safety stick

Kerr pointed out that digital smoke detectors are controllable from cell phones and are advantageous as, if one is triggered in the house, the homeowner can react quickly to stop it from any location.

"To put out the fire that was detected, we can get a fire safety stick which is easier to use than the traditional style fire extinguisher. It's a tube, and if something should happen, you take off the bottom cap and it releases the gases to put out the fire," Kerr said. "If you take a five-pound fire extinguisher, it has a discharge time of seven to 10 seconds. The fire safety stick has a 50-second discharge time and you don't have to be there doing it unlike the traditional one." She also highlighted that the fire safety stick can be used in the kitchen to help with oil fires which can be fatal.

Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Stewart Beckford, said the organisation is big on technology.

"The [local government] minister made mention about the drone that we have in our system that is able to go up to the 10th floor and we are buying more advanced trucks with better technology to allow us to access high rise buildings going up to 24 floors," he said, admitting that the fire alarm systems and smoke detectors they recommend may seem expensive.

"One should look at the investment that they are aiming to protect the lives of family members and property," he said. These technologies are also said to be easy to maintain.