Niagara, October '04

Anvil Technologies invited to implement RECoN™ (Roaming Emergency Communications Network) at the Niagara mock disaster exercise:

All the fire engines, EMAT trailer, police cruisers and ambulances outside the old St. Michael's High School in Niagara provided an impressive sight. The various services were gathered to conduct a disaster mock exercise. The challenge was assembling the mass of first responders, observers, mock casualties and vehicles. It was staged to look like a real, large scale disaster.

Once the initial coordination had been established, everyone fell into their normal roles. A triage centre was set up, victims treated and moved into the appropriate mock hospital rooms.

"These exercises are so important", said Dr. Laurie Mazurik. "It gives the first responders and medical staff first hand experience of what one is likely to run into in a real mass disaster. It takes us through the steps at a learning pace. The key to readiness is practice, practice, practice."

Anvil had the opportunity to test out its RECoN™ technology, an instantly deployable, mobile, communications network using the BreadCrumb® wireless network. The technology significantly enhances situational awareness by providing first responders, incident commanders and remote authorized users a live view of the incident via multiple video cameras. In addition, the technology also provides access to software applications and remote databases over the Internet via a land or satellite link. Voice over IP providing communication access to the PSTN (public service telephone network) and cell phones was also successfully deployed.