Fire play: ICCARUS - Intelligent command and control, acquisition and review using simulation

Isitpossibletoeducateafireofficertodealintelligentlywiththecommandandcontrolof amajorfireeventhewillneverhaveexperienced?Theauthorsof thispaperbelievethere is, and present here just one solution to this training challenge. It involves the developmentof anintelligentsimulationbaseduponcomputermanagedinteractivemedia.The expertise and content underpinning this educational development was provided by the West Midlands Fire Service.Their brief for this training programme was unambiguous and to the point: 1. Do not present the trainee with a model answer, because there are no generic fires. Eachincidentisnovel,complex,andoften‘wicked’inthatitchangesobstructivelyas it progresses. Thus firefighting demands that Commanders impose their individual intelligence on each problem to solve it. 2. A suitable Educational Simulator should stand alone; operate in real time; emulate as nearly as possible the ‘feel’ of the fireground; present realistic fire progress; incorporate the vast majority of those resources normally present at a real incident; bombard the trainee with information from those sources; provide as few systemprompts as possible. 3. There should also be an interrogable visual debrief which can be used after the exercise to give the trainees a firm understanding of the effects of their actions.This allows them to draw their own conclusions of their command effectiveness. Additionally, such a record of command and control will be an ideal initiator of tutorial discussion. 4. The simulation should be realisable on a hardware/software platform of £10 000. 5. The overriding importance is that the simulation should ‘emulate as nearly as possible the feelings and stresses of the command role’.