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Fire Weather Technologies' flagship product is FireMetTM Decision Support Software for wildland fire management. FireMetTM processes data from a highly accurate yet affordable weather station such as the Davis Instruments' Vantage Pro, calculating the Chandler Burning Index and other outputs, making dispatch level recommendations and providing invaluable intelligence for initial attack dispatchers, responding or at scene Incident Commanders, responding company officers, overhead, crews, and aircraft. The data is regularly uploaded and processed in intervals as short as once per minute. FireMetTM works with readily available and inexpensive third-party weather software products such as Davis Instruments WeatherLink, Ambient Weather's Virtual Weather Station (VWS), Thunderhead Technologies' WxSolution, and Weather Display. Other software can be used; please contact us using the link below for information. This data can be viewed locally in a web browser, on an intranet, or over the internet itself. It can be shared with the public and media to increase public awareness of fire danger, or restricted to internal use only.
One of the biggest ongoing challenges in wildland fire management is that of making an initial attack dispatch appropriate to actual conditions. Dispatching short can - and often does - result in a fire escape when initially dispatched resources are inadequate to catch the fire in its incipient stage and supplemental resources, due to the delay in their dispatch, arrive too late to catch the fire early. Sometimes just as undesireably, over-dispatching results in the unnecessary risking of lives due to excessive resources all making an emergency response and converging on the same area, excess costs, and moving resources out of place leaving other areas uncovered and providing an opening for a new, separate start to escape due to delayed responses from out of place resources. FireMetTM can help by providing a reliable indicator of right now weather's affect on hostile fire ignition and behavior, and allowing initial attack dispatchers and incident commanders to adjust the initial attack dispatch level to one appropriate for current conditions. No system is perfect, and as you well know, many factors affect wildfire ignition and behavior. A larger than expected ignition source, topography, fuel types, multiple starts, and many other factors will dramatically affect what you'll find upon arrival. But having good weather data and attendant anticipated fire behavior will allow you to make a much more educated and typically much more appropriate, initial dispatch. Here are some live examples of FireMetTM in use:
FireMetTM can be purchased directly by clicking on this link. If you have any questions or would like additional information, please feel free to contact us at any time at firewxtech@wilcowx.com |
