Personal alert safety system localization field tests with firefighters

When firefighters get lost or incapacitated on the fireground, there is little time to find them. This project has focused on a contemporary device used in this situation, the Personal Alert Safety System. We have studied the noises on the fireground (i.e., chainsaws, gas powered ventilation fans, pumper trucks) [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134, 4221 (2013)], how the fire environment affects sound propagation [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134, 4218 (2013)], and how firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) affects human hearing [POMA 19, 030054 (2013)]. To put all these pieces together, we have traveled to several fire departments across the country conducting tests to investigate how certain effects manifest themselves when firefighters search for the source of a sound. We tasked firefighters to locate a target sound in various acoustic environments while their vision was obstructed and while wearing firefighting PPE. We recorded how long it took them to find the source, what path they took, when they first heard the target sound, and the frequency content and sound pressure level of the acoustic environment. The results will be presented in this talk. [Work supported by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program.]