A small piece of technology about the size of a tablet is being hailed as a game changer for firefighters if they ever face another Black Summer of bushfires.
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service's fleet of 5,000 trucks is being fitted with mobile data terminals that will allow crews to instantly send and receive life-saving information.
The equipment will be capable of sharing the latest weather forecasts, fire behaviour, and safety warnings.
Once other technology comes online, the terminals will also help to track crews and their trucks.
"It's about connecting our firefighters with this technology and improving their situational awareness," RFS Deputy Commissioner Peter McKechnie said.
"Having to transmit over the radio and address an incident or something we may need to tell them for their own safety about a product that might be stored at a certain location, now we'll be able to just instantly send them those details."
Radio silence
RFS crews rely on radios for their communication, which the Rural Fire Service Association (RFSA) warns has its limitations.
"As we saw many, many times in 2019–2020 radios are tied up with something [when] an emergency is taking place," RFSA president Scott Campbell said.
"The information that will come to us about fire weather, mapping, the incident information, and information that is given to our fire control centres and that ability to push that out to our field commanders will be a game changer."
The need for better and more modern communications equipment is one of the challenges RFS crews experienced during the Black Summer bushfires.
The rollout of mobile data terminals was recommendation 37 from an independent inquiry into the natural disaster.
Future 'game changer'
Deputy Commissioner McKechnie said the technology would have made a huge difference had it been available during the 2019–2020 season.
"It certainly would have assisted our firefighters," he said.
Scott Campbell from the RFSA said volunteers would be better protected in the future.
"It will definitely improve safety," he said.
"One of the things that came out of the Keelty inquiry was the ability to track trucks.
"Once all trucks are then on the GRN system they will have that capability because, currently, we're reliant on a radio message.
"It'll be made so much easier with a data terminal because they will be able to see where you are."
The NSW RFS is working with an IT company on the rollout and expects the installation to start in early 2023 and take three years to complete.
