Eyes in the dark

In a hot, smoky fire situation the average person can barely see a hand in front of their face. So what happens when you’re a fire-fighter who literally needs to see (and work) in the dark?

Otago Polytechnic Bachelor of Information Technology students Grant Helm, Stuart Matthews and Shiming Shen, are giving the New Zealand Fire Service a way to understand the pressures faced by trainee fire-fighters. The trio has designed training aid software that displays captured thermal imaging video and body statistics of trainees on a data-logger. Used in a hot fire training room in blackout conditions at temperatures up to 300 degrees celsius, the data captured clearly shows the effects of heat and stress on the human body.

“I’ve worked as a volunteer firefighter and know what the poor sods go through! The first time is very scary.” says Grant. “We’ve had to work closely with our reallife client the Fire Service – to understand the problem and figure out how to get the technical elements working together. It’s been great to see things come together, and the feedback has been fantastic.”

Now tested at the Dunedin Central Fire Station, the package looks set to become part of the standard operating procedure for trainees nationwide; a fantastic result for a team of students carrying out their first project for a real life client.

“Safety is the biggest thing in our organisation,” says Keith Ferris, Training Officer with New Zealand Fire Service,” The feedback from paid staff is ‘when are we going to get this?’ This is the best training they can get.”