As search and rescue teams went into burned out areas after the fires of early October 2017, they had with them tools they’d never used before. Those tools were on loan at the time, but now the county’s SAR team is making a leap. As technology becomes an integral part of our everyday lives, organizations like the Mendocino County Search and Rescue are embracing technology advancements to help do their job. Throughout their most recent searches and rescues, volunteers have used new technology devices to make their searches safer and more efficient.
When a volunteer goes out on a search and rescue mission, he or she takes a GPS receiver and an iridium SHOUT Nano device, a recent addition to the department. The Nano is a second-generation handheld satellite tracker and messaging tool equipped with on-screen keyboards that allow volunteers to text and send position reports back to the sheriff’s office. Mendocino County volunteers can also push a guarded red alert button that sends an immediate emergency notification to the California National Guard center in Fresno who then alert the sheriff’s office. The added alert gives searchers an extra layer of security in case of accidents or emergencies. According to Jared Chaney, the Mendocino County Search and Rescue Commander, the recent addition of their new Nanos have been instrumental in helping them in their searches.
“We have a limited set of resources, and we have to accomplish whatever we are able to in that amount of time. So having a tool like this gives us maximum impact for the amount of resources,” Chaney said.
One of their most essential technology devices is a computer software program called Gec2o, which helps the search and rescue command post track the GPS devices. Gec2o looks similar to Google Earth and allows the GPS devices carried by the searches to appear as dots on the screen. Because the program updates searchers’ location in real time, it enables the command post to track searchers movements during an operation. They can also tell if someone is straying outside their area in real time during a search and can help them get back into position. The Gec2o program also records all the movements of the GPS during a search. Volunteers movements show up as red lines on the mapping program and allow the command center to see all the areas they have visited. The command post can also see if searches didn’t check in on a specific spot in an area, which allows them to ask people on the ground to go back and check an area.
Chaney says that these programs help keep people safe in the wilderness of Mendocino County and also help them search areas with higher probability and increasing accuracy, saving valuable time and resources during a time-sensitive search.
Gec2o also allow them to figure out what is the best place to set up a command post in the field during a search. One of the options lets someone type in how tall they are. Once the program is given a specific location on its map, it will calculate and shade everything in red on the map that you would be able to see based on your entered height and location. Chaney says that based on this information he can tell if the area is an appropriate place to set up a post or to put someone there to watch what’s going on.
Before technology advancements like Nanos and Gec2o, the search and rescue teams relied on maps and compasses while searching. Volunteers would often have to draw where they wanted to look beforehand and hoped it worked out because it was hard to update information to show the areas they had already searched.
During the October fires, nearly all of the search and rescue people had up to date GPS devices and Nanos to help stay in communication and to be safer. During their initial searches, Mendocino County Search and Rescue would send red pins back to the Gec2o program at the command post representing all the visited burned houses that were dangerous and had hazardous materials inside. From there, the Gec2o program put all the red pins together to show which homes they had visited and what other houses they still needed to check out, saving them valuable time and resources.
Chaney says all the information at their fingertips makes their job easier and also allows volunteers to be better equipped when they go out into harms way.
“All the different tech gives us that little bit of a security blanket of safety so that we know we can keep our deputies and our volunteers safe and bring them back to search the next time,” Chaney said.