For firefighters, it is not always easy to realize the exact situation when a panicked person dials 18. While waiting for the arrival of help on site, it is sometimes difficult to assess the precise means to be deployed. or even the environment of the place where the person on the line is.
When she calls to report a fire starting, without being able to determine exactly where she is, or that she is lost in the forest, the Tarn firefighters now have the possibility of accessing the camera of their smartphone. For several weeks, the departmental and fire service of this department of Occitania has indeed had the XpertEye software which allows to take control of the device of the “applicant”, with his agreement. Software deployed a little over a year ago by their counterparts in Val-d’Oise.
“For operators, it’s an additional tool that they can use after having sent resources on site. Depending on the situation, they will propose to the applicant if they agree to share their camera. If so, they enter his phone number in the interface and send him an SMS. He clicks on it and the application opens, the firefighter can see the applicant and vice versa, ”explains Guillaume Soulard, the center manager of the Tarn firefighters’ alert processing center.
Reassure, better assess
Last September, when a motorist lost control of his car without a license on Place Jean-Jaurès, the operator used XpertEye with one of the people present at the scene of the accident. This was also the case when a fire ravaged a restaurant in downtown Castres at the end of September. “On the fourth call, we asked the person if we could take control of their camera. This allowed us to realize the extent of the fire, to assess the risks of spread and to see if we had engaged the right number of means, ”continues Guillaume Soulard.
For the latter, having eye contact can also reassure people, “help them relieve the pressure” or give them the possibility of making the first gestures, such as putting the victim in PLS or placing their hands correctly when attacking. heart massage. Firefighters already had the possibility of geolocating a call, but thanks to XpertEye, they can see, for example, if a lost person is at the foot of a rocky bar or in an easily accessible place. They also have the possibility of activating the zoom of the camera, of turning on the portable flashlight or of drawing on the screen, for example to point to a precise point. The link remains active for one hour and can only be reactivated by sending a new SMS, which reassures those who are afraid of seeing their camera hacked.
During the running-in phase, the use of the software is regularly tested by the call center operators using the smartphones of the firefighters who intervene at an accident site. Gradually, they should use it more regularly.