Rapid fire emergency response for minimizing human casualties within a facility

• US 6,496,110 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2000
• Issued: 12/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Leidos, Inc. (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
• Inventors: Peterson, Edward W., Grot, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Benjamin C.
• Application Number:
  US09/732,175
• Publication Number:
  US 20020053978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 741 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/691.2, 340/506, 340/541, 340/584, 340/502, 340/515, 340/517, 340/522, 340/523, 340/525, 340/691.3, 340/988, 340/995, 340/626, 340/691.6, 187/390, 701/207, 702/33, 702/1, 710/113, 705/9, 236/46.R, 236/49.1, 345/782, 165/263, 165/281, 621/766, 62/32, 454/327, 454/322
• US Class Current: 340/522
• CPC Class Codes: A62B 3/00 Devices or single parts for facilitating escape from buildings or the like, e.g. protection shields, protection screens; Portable devices for preventing smoke penetrating into distinct parts of buildings A62B1/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for responding to a fire emergency at a facility by analyzing a plurality of fire threat conditions to determine possible responses to a fire emergency and selecting a response to the fire emergency for minimizing human casualties within the facility. The present invention may be characterized in one embodiment as a method for generating an automated response to an emergency that includes the steps of (a) receiving as input fire threat condition data for a facility; (b) analyzing the fire threat condition data to determine a matrix of possible responses to a fire emergency; and (c) selecting a response from the matrix of possible responses to minimize human casualties.

Claims

1. A method for generating an automated response to an emergency comprising the following steps:

(a) receiving as input fire threat condition data for a facility;

(b) comparing the fire threat condition data with a previously determined scenario in an incident matrix to identify a fire emergency; and

(c) selecting a response corresponding to the identified fire emergency from a previously determined matrix of possible emergency responses to minimize human casualties.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the facility includes at least one of a vehicle for public or private transportation, a government building, an office building, a public gathering place, a parking structure, a factory, a building complex, a park, and an urban area.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the fire threat condition data include at least one of human observations, smoke agent release data, explosive release data, and meteorological data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein step (a) includes receiving as input facility operations data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the facility operations data include at least one of temperature, humidity, HVAC system states, personnel locations and concentrations, elevator locations, doors open or closed and locked or unlocked, intrusion alarms, location and number of occupants, and structural condition data.

6. The method of claim 4 further including the step of storing the fire threat condition data and the facility operations data in the previously determined incident matrix.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the previously determined matrix of possible emergency responses is based on analyzing at least one of facility structure, facility control options, facility test results, and contaminant dispersion models.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the contaminant dispersion models include at least one of a multiple zone model of airflow and contaminant migration in multi-compartment buildings, a computational fluid dynamic model, and an exterior contaminant flow model.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein step (c) includes selecting the response corresponding to the identified fire emergency from the previously determined matrix of possible emergency responses based on at least one of human sensitivity to smoke substances, defined response criteria, and user control and judgment criteria.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the step of (d) generating as output commands or instructions for implementing the selected response.

11. The method of claim 10 further including the step of (e) communicating the commands or instructions for carrying out the selected response.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein step (e) includes communicating at least one of evacuation instructions, personnel relocation instructions, audio/visual instructions, instructions transmitted over a local area network, and instructions transmitted over wireless devices.

13. An apparatus for generating an automated response to a fire emergency comprising:

at least one input for receiving fire threat condition data for a facility;

an incident identification module coupled to a plurality of inputs for identifying a fire emergency from the fire threat condition data and a previously determined incident matrix of emergency scenarios; and

an incident specific response generator coupled to the incident identification module for selecting an emergency response corresponding to the fire emergency from a previously determined matrix of possible emergency responses.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising an instruction module coupled to the incident specific response generator for communicating instructions corresponding to the selected emergency response.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the communicated instructions include instructions for routing personnel within the facility to safety.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the communicated instructions include instructions for controlling facility equipment and resources.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the facility includes at least one of a vehicle for public or private transportation, a building, a public gathering place, a parking structure, a factory, a building complex, a park, and an urban area.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the fire threat condition data include at least one of human observations, smoke release data, explosive release data, and meteorological data.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 further including at least one input for receiving facility operations data into the previously determined incident matrix.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the facility operations data include at least one of temperature, humidity, HVAC system states, personnel locations and concentrations, elevator locations, open, closed, locked, and unlocked doors;

open, closed, and broken windows;

facility penetrations and openings, intrusion alarms, location and number of occupants, and structural condition data.

21. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the previously determined matrix of possible emergency responses is based on at least one of facility structure, facility control options, facility test results, and contaminant dispersion simulated by a contaminant dispersion model.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the contaminant dispersion model includes at least one of a multiple zone model of airflow and contaminant migration in multi-compartment buildings, a computational fluid dynamic model for internal and external flow, and an exterior air flow model.

23. A method for generating an automated response to a fire emergency, comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of first inputs relevant to one or more fire emergency conditions;

storing combinations of one or more of the first inputs and states of the first inputs in an incident matrix and associating each of the combinations of the first inputs with one of the fire emergency conditions;

analyzing the combinations of the first inputs to generate a matrix of fire emergency response options for each of the combinations of the first inputs;

selecting an emergency response from the matrix of emergency response options to minimize human casualties for each of the combinations of the first inputs;

arranging the selected emergency response associated with each of the combinations of the first inputs in a response matrix;

receiving one or more second inputs relevant to threat conditions;

identifying from the incident matrix one of the emergency conditions corresponding to a combination of the second inputs; and

selecting from the response matrix one of the emergency responses corresponding to the identified emergency condition.

24. A system for generating an automated response to a fire emergency, comprising:

an incident matrix that receives a plurality of first inputs relevant to one or more fire emergency conditions, stores combinations of one or more of the first inputs, and associates each of the combinations of the first inputs with a fire emergency scenario;

a response determination module that receives and analyzes the emergency scenarios from the incident matrix to generate a matrix of emergency response options for each of the emergency scenarios, wherein the response determination module further selects an emergency response from the matrix of emergency response options to minimize human casualties for each of the emergency scenarios;

a response matrix that receives the selected emergency responses for the emergency scenarios and arranges each of the selected emergency responses with a corresponding one of the emergency scenarios;

an incident determination module that receives one or more second inputs relevant to threat conditions;

an incident identification module that receives the emergency scenarios from the incident matrix and a combination of the second inputs from the incident determination module and identifies the combination of the second inputs as one of the emergency scenarios; and

an incident specific response generator that receives the identified emergency condition from the incident identification module and the selected emergency response corresponding to the identified emergency scenario from the response matrix and outputs emergency instructions based on the corresponding selected emergency response.