Worcester, Mass. has had to bear more greif than any city should share during the last 12 years. At that time, six veteran firefighters lost their lives battling a building fire and collapse started by a homeless couple.
Today, another member of the Worcester Fire Department joined the Honor Roll of the Fallen as he died answering a call that there might be someone in a rapidly crumbling building. He and his partner, veterans with more than 30 years of combined experience, were in the rear end of a shaky building that fell in on them. Jon Davies, a veteran of 17 years on the department, didn't think of himself as he went in and searched the rear of a shaky building for that one last reported victim.
Father of three
The 43-year-old father of three, one of whom is serving in Afghanistan, according to the local CBS outlet WBZ-TV, and his partner, Brian Carroll, a 14-year veteran, didn't hesitate to do their duty even as the engines outside saw the building collapsing and tried to warn them with their air horns, sirens and every other measure they could think of.
Firefighter Davies was on the first floor, news reports say, when the rear of the building collapsed in on him, while his partner, Firefighter Carroll, was in the basement. It was reported the Carroll was forced into a hole in the cellar he was investigating as the building crashed around him and that fact saved his life.
Not so for Firefighter Davies, who, ironically fought the fire that claimed six colleagues a dozen years ago.
This much is known of the fire that destroyed the multi-story tenement building in the heart of Massachusetts second-largest city. It started somewhere in the rear, reports say, and the State Fire Marshall's office is investigating. WBZ reported that the building's current owner purchased it about three years ago and there have been numerous code violations and calls to that location by the fire department.
All we know
This is about all the solid fact, except for the death of a brave man and the injury to another, that is known as they are still seeking the missing victim.
Whether the code violations existed or didn't is beyond the scope of this story and it is up to investigators to fill in. What is germane to this story is the hero firefighter who gave the final measure, on the report of a missing or possibly missing victim. It is also about his able partner who, but for some grace, was pushed into a hole as the detritis of the burning building crashed around them.
As noted, the colleagues who rushed to their aid after the collapse tried to warn them that catastrophe was about to happen, but that effort fell short.
So what, you may rightly ask, does this have to do with Ham Radio? The answer is simple, four letters, RFID or Radio Frequency Identity Device.
For many years, Hams have known that any RF-generating device -- a high-powered transceiver and amplifier combination, simpler transceiver or even a hobby-built "tuna-can special" -- actually puts radio frequency energy all over the place. Hams use tuned circuits and antennas to ensure that what goes out doesn't come back down into someone's TV set or so that a station's voice transmissions don't open and close garage doors or turn lights on and off.
RF systems could help
Still, radio frequency (RF) energy actually seems to have a mind of its own and if it finds a path, it will take that path. This is known as Radio Frequency Interference and any Ham who has passed Ham Basic 101 knows the cures which require actions on the Ham's part, but it is a solvable issue.
Yes, this is a long way around to get to the point of this article and that is that RFID transmitters and trackers just might have given the heroes of the fire enough time to back out of the deteriorating situation and get to safety. This, of course, is speculation but it does make sense to add this tool to the arsenal of safety tools that firefighters (and all first-responders) should have at their disposal.
This is not new technology, either. For years retail outlets have used RFID tags, whether on special cases and cartons or as paste-on strips that must be deactivated, to ensure that the goods that are on the shelves are paid for before they leave the store. Indeed, many a cusutomer has been embarassed as some harried clerk has forgotten to deactivate the RFID tag and the hooters on the door go off, leading a customer to turn around and go back inside. They have, though, also cut shoplifting rates where they are used.
RFID tags are very special transmitters that are focused on one frequency, usually around 433 MHz and are very low power. They don't have to send out much signal to activate a warning device a few feet away.
Here's something you may not know any RF circuit is actually a two-way circuit. It's true that a receiver may be located on a site to keep track of merchandise, but it is equally true that the same technology can be activated by actively tracked and signals can be sent to it to ask it where it is located.
Basic "square wave" technology
The basic technology used in RFID devices is called "square wave." In other words, they are basically transmitters that will can be heard in many places, if you know where to look, but they are usually channeled to a main frequency by shaping filters that keep the signals where they are wanted.
However, because they are two-way circuits that can be tracked from a simple laptop with the right program, they prove very useful. RFID circuits are used to track major shipments of goods via satellite and terrestrial means across the country. They are also used in delivery services to track trucks and delivery times and even limos and their passengers are followed by RFID technology.
To prove this is not a pipe dream, there is a firm in South Africa that uses RFID to track its fleet of vehicles around the country to ensure that deliveries are made on time and that routes are followed. The RFID devices are polled by a transmitter every 15 minutes and the updated locations appear on mapping software (Google maps works well). The author of this article has been involved in testing and using this technology from the Americas and it does work and it can update a moving device, as well.
The point to this is if two-way RFID devices had been sewn into the firefighters' turnout gear and if there had been a laptop in a command post tracking the firefighters' locations the firefighters might have either received an early warning to vacate via their walkie-talkies, provided they were equipped with them.
A two-way advantage
Actually, the best feature of RFID technology is in its first two letter RF or radio frequency. Today, RF can be broadbanded or encrypted to a specific device and with this technology advancing as fast as it is, it shouldn't be hard to develop -- if somone hasn't already -- a two-way RFID-based safety sysem for firefighters. This would be a system that would work in addition to their hand-held radios as, perhaps, a device that appears on the goggles that firefighters wear telling them an operation is over and it is time to get out.
It is not in the realm of science fiction as international radio traffic is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Who knows, if such a system had been in operation a little earlier today, then the life of brave man would have been spared and instead of planning for the somber business that now lays ahead, his family would be getting him the special putter or tool he always wanted. We will never know. What we will know and hear is the chiming of the fire bell that indicates another brave man has fallen.
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