More information can create more cognitive workload

An incident commander does not need to continuously monitor every air bottle, heart rate, video feed, sensor, map layer, radio channel, and system alert. More information can improve situational awareness, but poorly presented information can also create distraction and additional workload.

Technology approaches

Exception-based alerting

Systems that stay quiet until something crosses a threshold, rather than presenting every stream continuously.

Before you buy

  • Alarm fatigue is the failure mode. Ask how thresholds are set and who can change them.
  • Find out what happens on a large incident — an alert per firefighter is not an exception.
  • The objective is decision support, not information display. Connected systems should identify meaningful changes and bring them to the appropriate person's attention; an incident commander should not have to become a full-time data analyst during a working fire.
  • Better would highlight that a crew has stopped moving, an SCBA has crossed a meaningful air threshold, a unit is no longer where command expects it to be, thermal conditions are changing rapidly, or an important communication has not been acknowledged.

Role-based command displays

Different views for the IC, accountability officer, safety officer and company officer, each showing what that role needs.

Before you buy

  • Ask whether the roles are configurable or fixed to the vendor's idea of a command structure.
  • Check it degrades to something usable on a phone, which is what a safety officer will actually have.

Data integration and visualization

Combining sources into one operating picture, and presenting it so the important change is the one you notice.

Before you buy

  • A picture assembled from five feeds fails in five ways. Ask what it looks like when each one drops.
  • Ask to see it under load, with a full alarm assignment, not a two-unit demonstration.

AI-assisted decision support

Software that watches the incoming data for meaningful change and surfaces it, rather than asking a person to monitor everything.

Before you buy

  • AI should support the incident commander, not replace command judgment.
  • Ask what happens when it is wrong, and whether the IC can see why it flagged something.
  • Ask what it was trained on, and whether that resembles your building stock and staffing.
  • The standard for automation or AI is the same as any other fireground technology: does it help a human make a better decision without creating another operational problem?

Companies working in this area

Listed alphabetically, not ranked. Everything below is reported by the company itself. Being listed is free and is not a recommendation — use the questions above when you talk to any of them.

All companies

  • 3AM Innovations Inc.

    Buffalo, NY

    FLORIAN

    Real-time personnel and resource accountability on a dynamic 3D incident map.

    Vendor reported

    Visit website →

  • Adashi Systems

    Adashi FirstResponse MDT

    Adashi FirstResponse MDT gives responders mobile access to incident information for response and scene management.

    Vendor reported

    Visit website →

  • Axon

    Axon Air

    Axon Air provides drone-as-first-responder hardware, software, live video, and regulatory support for public safety agencies.

    Vendor reported

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  • Buffalo Computer Graphics

    Blasdell, NY

    DisasterLAN (DLAN)

    Web-based all-hazards incident-management platform providing a common operating picture, GIS, resource tracking, workflows, and ICS documentation.

    Vendor reported

    Visit website →

  • CrisisGo

    Mountain View, CA

    CrisisGo Unified Safety Platform

    Connected safety platform combining emergency plans, alerts, maps, accountability, response workflows, and interagency information sharing.

    Vendor reported

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  • D4H

    Dublin

    D4H Incident Management

    Configurable incident-management platform combining maps, status boards, forms, tasks, logs, plans, and responder coordination.

    Vendor reported

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  • DroneControl

    Geneva

    DroneControl Software Ecosystem

    A secure drone operations platform for fire and emergency services, combining flight operations, live video, incident collaboration, automated flight logs, media management, pilot management and fleet compliance.

    Vendor reported

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  • DroneSense

    DroneSense Platform

    DroneSense helps public safety agencies fly, manage, map, stream, and collaborate around drone operations.

    Vendor reported

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  • Flock Safety

    Atlanta, GA

    Flock DFR

    Flock DFR is a drone-as-first-responder system that launches drones to provide live incident video and scene awareness.

    Vendor reported

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  • Fotokite

    Boulder, CO

    Fotokite Sigma

    Fotokite Sigma is a tethered UAS that provides fire and public safety teams with live aerial situational awareness.

    Vendor reported

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  • Hotwash

    Cambridge, MA

    After-action review platform to capture lessons for the next generation.

    Vendor reported

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  • Intterra

    AwareUS

    AwareUS is America’s authoritative emergency information network, powering native mobile apps such as AwareCA with free, agency-led updates for your community.

    Vendor reported

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  • Juvare

    Dunwoody, GA

    WebEOC Nexus

    Cloud-based EOC and incident-management platform for maintaining a common operating picture across agencies and partners.

    Vendor reported

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  • Skydio

    San Mateo, CA

    Skydio Solution for Fire Service

    Skydio provides drones and software for fire service drone-as-first-responder, incident intelligence, thermal imaging, and mapping.

    Vendor reported

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  • Tablet Command

    Walnut Creek, CA

    Tablet Command helps incident commanders manage units, assignments, maps, accountability, and incident activity from mobile devices.

    Vendor reported

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  • Veoci

    New Haven, CT

    Veoci Emergency Management

    No-code emergency-management platform for EOC coordination, plans, notifications, workflows, resource tracking, mapping, and after-action reporting.

    Vendor reported

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  • Vocality

    Ashburn, VI

    Vocality RoIP GAteway

    The Vocality RoIP is a Radio over IP gateway provides interoperability between disparate radio devices, dispatch solutions, Push-To-Talk over Cellular and other IP technologies.

    Vendor reported

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Evidence and research

Government, standards and peer-reviewed sources on this problem. Every address here was checked before it was published.

ResearchNIST

User Experience — Public Safety Communications Research

NIST research on designing public-safety technology around responders' real environments, tasks and cognitive demands.

Why it matters

The argument that usability is a safety property, not a preference, made by the people who measured it.

ResearchNIST

NIST Announces Winners of the CommanDING Tech Challenge

Prototype command interfaces built specifically to raise situational awareness while lowering technical and cognitive burden.

Why it matters

Worth seeing what a command display looks like when reducing workload is the design goal rather than an afterthought.

Official resourceNIST

AI Risk Management Framework

The federal framework for identifying and managing the risks of an AI system.

Why it matters

Anything influencing a safety-critical decision needs an answer for reliability, false positives and what happens when it is wrong.

How these sources are labeled

Research
Academic or laboratory work.
Official resource
A government or standards body. Neutral, no commercial interest.

Nothing here is paid placement. Links are chosen because they are the clearest explanation we could find, and labeled so you know who wrote them.

Learn before you buy

Learning Lab

What departments are asking

Mutual Aid

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Losing equipment between stations and apparatus. Looking at RFID versus barcode. Interested in what has survived contact with actual crews rather than what demonstrated well.

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