• Obama unveils plan to hire vets as first-responders

    Speaking at a fire station in Arlington, Virginia, last week, President Obama elaborated on his plans to hire veterans as first responders that he unveiled at the State of the Union Address

  • Satellites help rescuers save 207 people last year

    Thanks to the international network of search and rescue satellites, more than 200 people in remote locations in the United States were saved last year

  • Wireless underground robots for first responders

    First responders may have to look for victims in hostile or challenging environments, such as clandestine tunnels, subway systems, and underground structures; sending a wireless robot to look around and pull victims out would be safer

  • Fort Wayne Mayor dissolves joint homeland security department

    After six years of operation, the joint Fort Wayne-Allen County Homeland Security Department has been dissolved; last week Tom Henry, the Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana sent a letter to county officials notifying them of the city’s plans to end its agreement to share in the costs of the local homeland security department

  • Running robots for hard-to-reach places

    See video

    A large fraction of the Earth’s surface remains inaccessible to conventional wheeled or tracked vehicles, while animals and humans traverse such terrain with ease and elegance; scientists are working to develop search-and-rescue robots which emulate animal or human walking, thus making them more capable of saving people in hard-to-reach places

  • First responders could be zipping through skies within two years

    Glenn Martin, the inventor of the Martin Jetpack, the world’s first commercially available jetpack, recently spoke with Homeland Security NewsWire’s executive editor Eugene K. Chow; in their interview Martin discusses the technical challenges of developing a viable jetpack, its uses in emergency response, and when we can expect to see civilians zipping through the skies

  • Smart911 technology improves 9-1-1- response

    Municipalities improve 9-1-1 response with Smart911; the technology allows individuals to use a Web site to enter emergency-relevant information they want emergency personnel answering a 9-1-1 call to have, including children’s photos, medical conditions, disabilities, home addresses of cellphone callers, or other rescue-related information

  • Link found between PTSD, respiratory illnesses in 9/11 responders

    A new study finds that there are links between respiratory illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 9/11 first responders; “This study illustrates the integral relationship between mental health and physical diseases that WTC responders suffer,” one of the researcher says

  • ETC launches new SmartModel technology

    The new SmartModel technology consists of a library of 3D objects and elements that can be inserted into a Master Scenario Events List (MSEL) exercise scenario; the SmartModel library currently contains various intelligent elements including vehicles, crowds, casualties, threats, and hazards

  • Walden University offers M.S. in Emergency Management

    The school says that this new online master’s degree program emphasizes key skills related to creating and implementing disaster prevention and response plans

  • Chicago's new bio-attack response facility

    Chicago is preparing itself for a biological attack with the recent unveiling of a new 40,000 square-foot, fourteen story state-of the-art medical decontamination facility; the new facility is fully equipped to handle a sudden influx of patients from a biological attack or other mass casualty incident

  • On-demand emergency responder training

    New service allows fire, police, EMS, and military to provide their training video library through an on-demand delivery to any television; the service allows responders to select a video through a graphical menu on the television screen and then play, pause, restart, rewind or fast forward the video

  • Web-based interactive solution for first responders

    DGI is adding a Web-based, interactive map drawing feature to its CoBRA WEB Mapping; the solution will initially target fire departments, EMS organizations, bomb squads, HAZMAT teams, and police departments as a situational awareness tool to assist in the collaboration of first responders and emergency operation centers

  • New cloud computing based disaster management system

    Natural and man-made disasters require an effective and efficient management of massive amounts of data and coordination of wide varieties of people and organizations; researchers develop an elaborate cloud computing-based disaster management system

  • Smartphones to save lives in natural disasters

    Smartphones could help save hundreds of thousands of lives in the aftermath of a disaster or humanitarian crisis; software developed by computer scientists could help quickly and accurately to locate missing people, rapidly identify those suffering from malnutrition and effectively point people towards safe zones simply by checking their phones