The Erie Fire Department and Mercyhurst University teamed up to test innovative sensor technology designed to reduce the time it takes to find and rescue people from a burning building or other emergencies.
Erie News Now first introduced you to SimpleSense last week. The company here for the Secure Erie Accelerator is developing the technology.
Two volunteers hid in the Mercyhurst in the Mercyhurst Center for Academic Engagement. First Erie firefighters set out to find them using their usual protocol. That meant searching floor by floor, room by room. It took eight minutes to find the two men, one in a second floor stairwell, the other in a third floor classroom.
Then different firefighter teams repeated the test, with SimpleSense infrared sensors detecting the body heat of each person, and relaying advance data on the fastest routes to find them, before firefighters entered the building. This time, finding them took only two minutes.