A fire scare at my workplace early last year made me aware of the flaws and inefficiencies in conventional emergency evacuation processes.
Three problems stood out. Firstly, the fire alarm malfunctioned on the day, which led to a delayed alert. Secondly, despite fire marshals being aware that some escape paths were blocked by smoke, they had no efficient means to relay the message to those trapped inside. Thirdly, the headcount process at the assembly point was both time-consuming and error-prone.
Fortunately, nobody got injured on that day, but fires claim 3,800 deaths and cause 14,000 injuries every year in the US alone.
Motivated by these challenges, I set out to develop Evacuate, a comprehensive software solution capable of addressing these shortcomings through a multifaceted approach, incorporating built-in redundancies, real-time updates, self-check-in functionalities, and robust reporting mechanisms.
At the core of the solution is robust alerting and messaging infrastructure that facilitates communication between fire marshals and building occupants. Pre-programmed alerts ensure diverse instructions tailored to specific emergency scenarios. For instance, in a fire emergency, occupants are directed to designated assembly points, whereas in a school shooting, students and teachers are advised to shelter in place.
In addition to scheduled messaging, the system supports ad-hoc communication, enabling real-time dissemination of instructions, such as directing occupants to evacuate through the safest routes
Upon receiving the initial alert, occupants are prompted to self-report their status, indicating whether they are safe or in need of assistance via SMS or other channels. This bottom-up approach streamlines the check-in process, allowing multiple individuals to report their status simultaneously, thereby increasing the likelihood of completing headcounts within the critical five-minute window before first responders arrive on site.
In addition to scheduled messaging, the system supports ad-hoc communication, enabling real-time dissemination of instructions, such as directing occupants to evacuate through the safest routes.
By persisting emergency data in a secure database, fire marshals stationed at various assembly points receive instantaneous updates on the status of occupants, enabling them to prioritise assistance to those most at risk. Meanwhile, incident control has access to a dashboard, updated in real-time, that facilitates informed decision-making during such crises.
The software captures data from both drills and actual emergencies, providing valuable analytics to identify evacuation plan deficiencies, such as areas with prolonged evacuation times.
Evacuate was pitched to judges holding senior positions in accelerator programmes, venture capital companies, and investor summits at STup! 2023 and placed first among 30 participants.
The abovementioned research work was funded by the Tertiary Education Scholarships Scheme (Malta). It was supervised by Prof. Juanito Camilleri in partial fulfilment of the Master in Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship.