General Information

What is BART?

BART is a software suite, designed to help those within the emergency services:

• Turnout faster

• Communicate better

• Work safer

BART benefits all role levels involved in the turnout and incident response process:

• Individuals

• Brigades

• Districts/ Zones

• Agencies

• States

Modules

BART is made up of 4 modules and a member’s area, used for administering the system:

Open

Useful for individual members, brigade operations and administration

• Captures both pager and SMS messages, and feeds the data through to a smartphone or tablet device

• Takes raw data and presents it in a simple, visual and interactive way

• Brigades know the names of those attending, their arrival time, role and skill set

• Brigades can save time by assigning those attending to a specific appliance – even before arrival to the station

• Unlike a pager, BART allows for seamless two-way communication

Used to manage both brigade and multi-brigade incidents

• Commonly setup on a large screen within headquarters to maximise visibility for situational awareness

• When individuals arrive at the station, they no longer need to look at their smartphones for real-time updates

Enables the collection and control of Area, District and Regional level information

• Provides a high-level overview of all broadcasts to help area, regional and zone level management maintain awareness and control

• Warnings are in place to ensure managers can notice quickly and react accordingly when turnout requirements are not met

Assists with the management of resources across multiple agencies

• Helps to maintain organisation and accountability during large-scale incidents

• Assists in establishing and maintaining efficiency, coordination and the safety of members and support crews

• Eliminates the most common administrative distractions, allowing operators to focus on the control, delegation and planning aspects of incident management

• Makes is easier to oversee resource distribution and movement across multiple agencies

• Quicker, easier planning and resource building during the initial stages of a fire

• Share resources with other BART members (map polygons, annotations, metadata and other multimedia attachments)

Who is BART for?

BART can benefit entire communities, particularly those who need to work together closely in teams, despite differences in location.

Emergency Agencies

The BART system has been specifically engineered for emergency agencies, where its true power can be seen on a regional level through the management and interoperability of key agencies.

Not only can the various agencies work together seamlessly through the establishment of groups and teams within BART, but regional managers are able to gain valuable intelligence and situational awareness of the conditions at hand.

Some examples of emergency agencies in Australia using BART include:

• Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning (DELWP)

• Department of Fire & Emergency Services (DFES)

• NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS)

• QLD Rural Fire Service (QLD RFS)

• Country Fire Authority (CFA)

• State Emergency Service (SES)

• Country Fire Service (CFS)

• Australian Volunteer Coast Guard (AVCG)

• Ambulance Victoria (Members of Rural CERT Teams)

Emergency management teams, search and rescue units, fire brigades, mapping crews, response teams, community monitoring and assistance crews, can all benefit from the advanced team co-operation features offered through the BART system.

Local Communities

BART can also benefit communities at a local level, by providing a direct communication link from support and volunteer crews to those working on the front-line.

One example of the local and wider communities working together is strike team ‘Staging Area Groups’. Another example of how communities can use BART is through the bringing together of specialists from adjoining communities to create specialist appliance teams.

Recovery teams can also be formed within BART to protect and support communities making them more resilient.