Comprehensive Monitoring of Firefighters by a Wireless Body Area Sensor Network

Current research suggests that firefighters are under high risks of cardiac attacks due to heat stress and high physiological exertion. Thus, it is very important to track the location of firefighters in a real fire scenario, so as to alert the fire crew chief during a medical emergency. In this paper, we use Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks (WBASN) to gather various physiological data from monitoring devices and constantly monitor the firefighters in training or in action. A fire disaster is also a source of potentially hazardous gases. Therefore, systems should be developed that can monitor the level of such gases in the vicinity of the firefighters and generate appropriate alarms if levels of such gases exceed the prescribed safe levels. We also propose to set up wireless sensor devices to monitor the mobility of the firefighters inside the crisis area by measuring the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values received by these sensor motes strategically placed at different locations. We propose to develop a comprehensive location and monitoring system to be used by the firefighters while fighting fires. Our system would be ad-hoc, thus enabling it to be setup fairly quickly.