Following a visit in September for a close up look at how firefighters in California were battling wildfires in the state, officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are helping wildfire fighting authorities in California develop an Operational Requirements Document (ORD) to better describe how problems that could be solved with technology.
The ORDs help vendors better understand the needs of the customers, in this case wildfire fighters who are part of the first responder community.
“We’re helping vendors do what they do best: Create products people need at prices they’ll pay,” Thomas Cellucci, DHS’ chief commercialization officer and a volunteer firefighter himself, said in a statement.
A working group that ties homeland security customers with the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate has been developing a number of ORDs that express the needs of the wildfire fighting responders. These include a respirator, personal protective equipment that is very fire-retardant but still breathable, a personal alert and tracking system to warn when the air’s carbon monoxide level is unsafe and when a metal fence is electrically charged, and also notify incident commanders when a first responder is in distress.
Another ORD discusses the need for a situational awareness system that would let a field commander have ground-level view of the fire fighting scene while letting firefighters update and correct information as conditions change. Still another is for a system to assess and track how well a jurisdiction is prepared for a crisis.
Cellucci, who has been at DHS for a little over two years, has made improving the requirements generating process at the department one of his missions. His office is charged with managing DHS S&T’s outreach efforts with the private sector ultimately leading to the fielding of products or services.