Experience from indoor fire search and rescue game design for technology testing

Abstract

No matter how good the fire evacuation plan for a building is, there is a risk of immovable victims being left behind due to smoke obscuration, inhalation of poisonous gasses, or other reasons. Firefighters usually perform the search and rescue for casualties in responding to fire hazards, besides the firefighting. Among of the challenges in the search and rescue operation is how to locate victims, and to keep monitoring the fire development so that it will not accidentally harm the fire personnel. This paper presents a game designed to test a smartphone app’s feature that supports concurrent tracking of indoor victims and fire spread. 22 volunteers were assigned roles either as rescuers or victims. The game was organized in collaboration with the fire service personnel as observers together with the building security officers. The evaluation results are presented from both observers’ and players’ perspectives.