NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RapidSOS and Emergency24 today announced a partnership that aims to deliver alarm signals for commercial fires faster and with more accurate data into the hands of first responders. With the launch of digital alerts, Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs) nationwide will receive dispatch information from monitoring centers in real-time, eliminating the need for a phone call.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, non-residential fires increased 20% with fatalities up 70% in the study period (2011 - 2021).
With RapidSOS, alarm signal data can be shared from the fire panel communicator, assessed by a central station, and received by ECCs and field responders all digitally, eliminating manual handoffs, transcription errors, and reducing transmission time.
"Information is power. With this solution our telecommunicators immediately receive location and critical incident data directly on their screens, delivered digitally while they engage with the central dispatch station and go through the verification process," said Jessie Wiederhold, Clermont County Communication Center Director. "The result is a faster and smarter response that will help save property and lives."
How the technology works
Central stations play a critical role in commercial fire emergencies by assessing and verifying the accuracy of the signal data received from the building's fire panels. With digital alerting through RapidSOS, UL-certified central stations can seamlessly share data with ECCs and field responders without the need for a phone call or manual input.
One key benefit for first responders - speed to dispatch. The Emergency24 integration delivers critical data, including the type of hazard, severity, and location within the impacted building, directly into the hands of telecommunicators and field responders. Combined with RapidSOS' capability to triage incidents by the criticality of a situation, emergencies that include commercial fire signals will be addressed faster.
"The potential loss factor from a commercial building fire is exponential. Timing is of the essence in addressing these incidents," explained Edward Parkinson, president of public sector at RapidSOS. "The partnership with Emergency24 connects 'smart' commercial fire systems with first responders - helping them to make better informed decisions and deploy the right resources faster."
Emergency24 led on integrating commercial fire data directly into its monitoring centers and digitally sharing it with first responders, in an effort to more efficiently deliver data in an incident. "We've been proactively testing the integration in the recent months and are extremely pleased with our ability to get 911 dispatched for commercial fires - essentially cutting a two and a half minute call to thirteen second digital dispatch," said Steve Mayer, vice president of operations at Emergency24.
"Supporting speed and accuracy of fire response is important at Honeywell, and we are happy to work alongside RapidSOS, who is improving not only the speed of delivery of emergency incident data but also the quality of information," said Sameer Agarwal, vice president and general manager, Commercial Fire Americas, Honeywell Building Technologies, an investor in RapidSOS. "The technology integrations between RapidSOS and its partners will help further modernize and digitize the public safety communications infrastructure."
"Accurate incident data is key when responding to a fire," said Daniel Seidberg, president of IamResponding. "This partnership between Emergency24 and RapidSOS empowers field responders via IamResponding with the contextual data to better prepare and respond to commercial fires."
