Battalion Chief Dustin Fails says the West Florence Fire Department is the first fire department in South Carolina to use an iPad app that could save lives.
The app is called Salamander, and the fire commander can use it right on the scene of a fire.
“It’s at the command center, where people in charge can see how many people are at the scene and what everybody is doing at that exact time,” Fails says of Salamander.
The app is like Facebook for fire departments, Fails says. It allows users to communicate among other fire departments without using two-way radios.
It also tracks each firefighter on scene. Here’s how that works: every firefighter has an identity card attached to them. The commander just has to scan a card to find what a particular firefighter is qualified to do. Or, if there’s an injured firefighter, Fails can scan the card to pull up one’s medical information or get the EMS that information.
Fails says the app costs the department $400 a year, adding that’s an investment that saves lives.
