What a wonderful world it would be if the fire service had access to the armies of engineers developing technologies for the military and NASA. Emerging technologies from those rich fields often take years to trickle into the hands of first responders.

Closing that gap is the primary mission of Michael Lucey, program manager of the Emergency Response Technology Program at the National Technology Transfer Center in Wheeling, W.Va. Lucey is the former IAFF national training coordinator of hazmat and infectious disease programs.

How did the Emergency Response Technology Program come about?

The program was modeled after National Institute of Justice programs, which helped commercialize products for police and law enforcement for many years. The fire service saw the success generated from those efforts and wanted to start its own initiative to transfer technology or enhanced technologies in emergency response. At that point, in 1998, we received funding under FEMA to initiate this effort and we assembled an elite group of senior emergency managers from throughout the United States to help us get started.

Dave Paulison, who was at the time fire chief in Miami-Dade, Fla., was our original program chair, our godfather. He was later appointed by the president to head the U.S Fire Administration. We also involved officials from the seven major fire service organizations that serve on the Congressional Fire Service Caucus, as well as FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Teams, various law enforcement associations, Metropolitan Medical Strike Teams, and various emergency medicine and public safety officials.

How are the technology needs of first responders identified?

We rely on our program chairs [Chief Mario Treviño, formerly of the San Francisco Fire Department, and Chief Michael P. Neuhard of Fairfax County, Va.,] and our advisers, a respected group of individuals in various sectors of emergency services, to identify their needs.

After a series of four meetings, they identified 40 specific technology needs in fire, hazardous materials, public safety and homeland security. But given our modest amount of funding, we found ourselves spread too thin to make any real contributions in so many different areas. So we went back to our advisers and asked them to give us a David Letterman-type “Top 10 List” to help us prioritize our efforts.

So what's on the list of technologies?

1. Three-dimensional tracking of personnel, as well as trying to get some biometric data on their physiological status, their blood pressure, temperature, as well as some sensor data about their ambient area.

2. Biological agent detection.

3. Casualty location and assessment, being able to identify in three dimensions the position of casualties in a collapsed structure, as well as trying to gather some basic information on that victim's vitality status.

4. Extended-mission or reduced-weight air supply respirators.

5. Nontoxic decontamination agents.

6. More lightweight, durable and chemically protective [turnouts].

7. Casualty patient-care data and monitoring systems, being able to assess patients' vital status in a mass-casualty sort of environment, where you have large numbers of individuals who are injured or overcome by a particular agent and being able to monitor their status.

8. Building and facility emergency response information or survey tools, being able to identify systems that can show characteristics of a given building — where power panels, wiring, utilities and those types of resources are located.

9. Reinforced concrete breaching and cutting tools, being able to rapidly cut through concrete without harming a victim who may be behind that particular concrete or rubble pile.

10. Approaching-traffic warning devices for emergency response vehicles. A large amount of accidents occur throughout the United States at intersections when emergency vehicles are passing through, and the general public is just not aware.

Once you've found or developed a product, how do you get the word out?

We post information about products that we're field-testing and those that we're commercializing on our Web site at www.nttc.edu/ertprogram/ and get the word out through the media. We're also funded to do demonstration projects and we use trade shows to make the community aware of the existence of technologies. People who have a product or an idea they believe could help meet a need can either contact us through our Web site or through our toll free number, 800-678-6882.