By ROD GOOSSEN
We’ve embraced widespread technology innovation in our lives since 19 hotshot firefighters died when they were trapped by a rapidly spreading Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona in 2013.
After this tragedy, I asked my brother Derek, an experienced firefighter involved in more than 100 wildfires, about how the tragic deaths could have been avoided. He explained that wildland firefighters are still using handheld compasses, paper maps, and two-way radios, limiting tactical coordination and situational awareness.
We founded RoGO Communications to develop technology to disrupt conventional, long-standing practices for first responders to wildfires and other disasters. We are developing technology to unleash a paradigm shift in wildland firefighting with satellite-enabled DropBlock devices and a smart phone app carried by firefighters hiking into the wilderness where cellular networks are typically not available.
RoGO DropBlocks act as a crew’s data portal and tracks the GPS location of all firefighters and resources in austere areas. Their small, portable size enables immediate deployment to support the initial attack of wildfires, the time of most dangerous risk to firefighters. The DropBlock communication platform enables immediate tactical coordination soon providing point-to-point messaging over satellite and transmitting fire weather data to all deployed crews for lifesaving situational awareness.
DropBlocks track the GPS location of crews, equipment and resources including bulldozers, water tenders, fire engines, marking high-value structures, medical evacuation rescue pick-up spots, makeshift water resources and more. DropBlocks help create a Common Operational Picture (COP) for all deployed crews.
RoGO satellite-based products and services also support first responders and others anywhere in the world including disaster responses for hurricanes, earthquakes and floods which have limited cellular network coverage due to the damage caused by the disaster.
The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management field tested DropBlocks with six wildland fire handcrews, suggesting a smaller size which launched earlier this year. A new smartphone app in development will provide point-to-point communications and tactical collaboration at the edge in addition to sharing location and hyper-local weather data, acting as portable weather stations including wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity and other IoT sensor data.
Firefighters have embraced technology from other companies, but solutions have only been partial. Some of these companies are partners for our comprehensive solution to potentially save lives, ranging from Kestrel to provide weather sensors to Starlink for connectivity for incident command centers.
RoGO partners with Iridium for DropBlock satellite connections. Starlink broadcasts at a high frequency that does not penetrate the tree canopy well. Starlink also requires much more power and receivers are much heavier. Firefighters need a small, portable and lightweight DropBlock solution to carry into the wilderness to fight fires.
Rod Goossen, RoGO Communications co-founder and chief executive officer
Rod Goossen is an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur passionate and dedicated to bring technology solutions to market that solve real-world problems assisting first responders. He has received three different patents for satellite-based data communications capabilities, resource tracking and high-bandwidth data transfer. For more information, please visit www.rogocom.com.
