SimTable key tool for preparing, responding to wildfire
SimTable: Stephen Guerin (L) and Chip Garner (R) with SimTable, a Santa Fe company helping firefighters model and predict where a fire is most likely to spread, received support for their business through Lab economic development programs: VAF, NMSBA, Springboard.
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- Manny L’Esperance
- Emergency Operations
SimTable key tool for preparing, responding to wildfire
LANL prepares for 2012 fire season
Emergency operations officials need an arsenal of tools to prepare for and fight wildland fires. SimTable is one of those tools. It may look like a plain old sandbox, but with computer simulation programs, SimTable can be used for the following:
- Simulate water drops
- Determine where to cut hand and dozer lines
- Help firefighters plan responses to a fire
- Determine the effectiveness of proposed fuel treatments
- Aid training
SimTable sees movement and objects through a camera and projects them on to a sand table.
Emergency planners can add variables, such as wind speed and direction, angle of sunlight, fuel density, topography and locations of buildings, roads, gas and power lines to model a wildfire, said Manny L’Esperance of Emergency Operations (EM-EO).
“SimTable allows us to much more effectively plan our responses to fires,” said L'Esperance.
SimTable is a spinoff of LANL technology commercialized by a Santa Fe company.
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