Ops Normal: Initial Attack

College of Engineering Unit:

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Project Team Member(s):

Aimee Bogle, Azzam Muthanna, Ben Shiffman and Kelson Denton

Project ID:

CS.15

Project Description:

Ops Normal is built to aid incident commanders by quickly generating equipment estimates based on the estimated size of the fire in acres and the number of structures. These estimates are editable and include the NFES (National Fire Equipment System) item numbers in order to facilitate quick order fulfillment. Once an estimate is generated, an integrated sharing option allows for fast and efficient response time. In addition to generating estimates, the app features an integrated section for pertinent documents, such as the Interagency Standard for Fire and Aviation Operations guide and the NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide. We have also included a compass feature that displays latitude/longitude in DMS, and altitude, with an integrated button to launch Avenza maps using your exact location data. These features allow for expedited communication of precise location information, in order to get the equipment on site as quickly as possible. Ops Normal can help agencies reduce costs, save time, and reduce risk to firefighters.

When a new wildfire is reported, responders from wildland firefighting agencies assess the fire and the incident commander assumes responsibility for drafting an estimate of what equipment will be required to combat the blaze. These equipment estimates can be complex and difficult to accurately estimate on the fly. Currently, estimates are calculated by hand in the field, and are prone to mistakes, which leads to increased costs and an increase in response time. Our objective is to increase firefighter safety by reducing the time it takes for critical equipment to reach front-line firefighters. We can accomplish this by simplifying the equipment estimate process and expediting order and fulfillment from the local NFES Cache. What once took hours to manually generate accurate estimates can now be done in a matter of seconds with Ops Normal. Ops Normal was built to aid the wildland firefighting community by saving time and money, and increasing the efficiency of wildfire incident response teams.