First-Responders Now Use ARA's App to Share Initial Incident Data

By Jyothi Shanbhag
TMCnet Contributor

Applied Research Associates, an international research and engineering company recognized for providing technically excellent solutions to complex and challenging problems in the physical sciences, has started the development of a Department of Homeland Security enhancement of the First Responder Support Tools (FiRST) application, to facilitate the sharing of incident data among FiRST users and with external systems.

Responder Support Tools (FiRST) was built after the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate sponsored its development to provide for the first-responder community, of nine million simple mobile and Windows PC-based tools, to assist them when faced with an improvised explosive device or hazardous material incidents.

Development of the FiRST Sharing Service (FSS) will allow organizations to establish FiRST data sharing services without the need to host any hardware or software.

FiRST provides First Responders, Emergency Managers and associated government officials easy access to map-based improvised explosive device (IED) standoff distances and HAZMAT spill evacuation areas. FiRST is available on Windows, Android (News - Alert) and iOS (iPhone/iPad) platforms.

In addition, this app allows organization to assign or define users, configure user access rights and establish sharing rights with external systems. FiRST users associated with an FSS account can post incident data, receive alerts when other data are posted, and retrieve incident data to allow all users of the FiRST apps to see the same incident data.

Dr. Carl Jerrett, the FiRST Principal Investigator said, “The consistent comment that we have received from our nearly 4,500 FiRST users is that they would like the data to be shared. The FiRST Sharing Service will provide this and is a huge step in ensuring responders will have the same incident picture when making decisions.”

Company officials said the app would go live on iOS, Android and Windows PC applications this summer, and users should see the enhanced capabilities by October 2013.