Workplace emergencies can strike anytime. Emergency action plans (EAP) are essential for emergency preparedness and business continuity for emergency events. Typical EAP’s are internal documents that contain procedures for emergency reporting, evacuation, accountability, and more. There is an interest between industry and emergency responders to develop pre-incident emergency response plans to enhance life safety and property conservation. These plans enable efficient operations and search and rescue activities. Typically, emergency responders create pre-incident response plans to cover businesses in their districts. Although these plans may be in place, an improvement to these plans would be to incorporate two dimensional computer aided design (2D CAD) drawings and three dimensional design information (i.e., 3D navigable imagery) so firefighters and emergency responders may become aware of the hazards, interior configuration, and layout of the building. As a result, firefighter and patient survival rates may be improved.
To date, no research has examined firefighters’ perceptions of incorporating 2D CAD and 3D navigable imagery for developing pre-incident emergency response plans. Additionally, no research has examined if the provision of this information will decrease search and rescue operations during emergency events. The objectives for this proposed study will be to collect a set of 2D CAD drawings and take three dimensional navigable photographs for three different NCDOT facilities and perform quasi-experimental testing with 81 professional firefighters to understand the characteristics and limitations of this information that enhances and limits pre-incident plan development. Specifically, The PI will visit three NCDOT
facilities and collect 2D CAD files and take 3D navigable imagery with an ECU supplied Matterport camera system.
The PI will visit fire stations across NC and display these formats of information to firefighters during interviews and ask firefighters a set of Likert scale and open ended questions to understand the benefits and limitations of each format of information and their potential impacts for use in pre-incident planning and emergency response events. Analysis of Variance and Mean and Dispersion tests will be used to test hypotheses for Likert scale questions. Open ended responses will be compiled and classified. This is the first innovative research to implement the use of a mixture of 2D CAD and 3D navigable imagery in a controlled quasi-experimental study to evaluate the feasibility and practicality of these formats of information on pre-incident planning. This project is relevant to NCDOT’s commitment of providing a safe workplace by uncovering the potential for 2D CAD and 3D Imagery to be used by fire departments to better prepare their firefighters to perform emergency response activities at NCDOT workplaces. This will open the lines of communication for NCDOT to further expand its opportunity to collaborate with representative emergency responders to create working emergency response guidelines for target facilities.
