Case Study

Fire Brigade Provides Timely Aid to Refugees
Kassel Fire Brigade
Kassel, Germany

How do a country’s emergency response organizations
deal with an influx of refugees? Not easily. It is a complex
situation that could overwhelm a government’s resources.
When thousands of desperate refugees fled the horrorsof civil war in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan to seek asylumin Europe, Germany proved to be an ideal destination
because it was willing and uniquely prepared to help therefugees resettle. Most notably, the Kassel Fire Brigade
leveraged its special operations capabilities to very
successfully and effectively coordinate the arrival of
refugees in the city and county of Kassel.
To prepare for such an undertaking, the fire brigade
took several important steps to build up its emergency
response technology foundation. Key to this effort was
Kassel’s joint command and control center, which leverages
industry-leading computer-aided dispatch (CAD) softwarefrom Hexagon’s Safety & Infrastructure division to alertand dispatch emergency personnel, route to operationalsites, and deliver critical information on-site.
Annually, the center coordinates more than 110,000responses with 18 rescue stations, five emergency
medical services locations, one rescue helicopter, and115 fire brigades with 407 vehicles. The center serves
440,000 citizens in an area covering nearly 540 square
miles that includes 30 cities and municipalities.

Coordinating Relief Efforts
As refugees poured into Germany and other European
countries, the logistical challenges quickly mounted,including providing shelter, beds, food, sanitary facilities,
and basic medical care. And that meant Kassel Fire Brigade
needed to work closely with public safety agencies,
medical services, and relief organizations throughout
the Kassel region.
Known for its innovation and highly skilled employees,
Kassel Fire Brigade has been a Hexagon customer
for more than two decades. During that time, the firebrigade has continually added to its technology arsenal.
To help coordinate information and resources among
all the agencies involved in managing the refugee
situation, it adopted Hexagon’s major event management
software for emergency operations centers and mobile
command staff.
The web-based solution enables users to coordinate
and integrate information and resources among decentralizedorganizations, and also works seamlessly with the firebrigade’s CAD system to provide fully integrated emergency
and incident management, including dispatching. Thesoftware soon became the lynchpin of the fire brigade’semergency management operations.

Case Study: Kassel Fire Brigade

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Mobilizing Resources Rapidly

Comprehensively Sharing Information

Armed with these tools, Kassel Fire Brigade has managed
the refugee crisis by efficiently sharing assignments andinformation among organizations, enabling the brigade
and its collaborators to set up accommodations forrefugees in a short amount of time. One situation, inparticular, required rapid response.

Hexagon’s software has enabled Kassel Fire Brigade tocombine situational information, maps and geospatial
data, and organizational plans and information via
the web for visualizing an entire event or operation,and, importantly, the roles and responsibilities of allteams involved.

“We had to provide shelter for 400 people within lessthan eight hours, including weatherproof shelter, beds,
food, sanitary facilities, and basic medical care,” said
Karsten Hose, incident commander at Kassel FireBrigade. “This is where the logistical processing anddocumentation capabilities in Hexagon’s solution playeda crucial role in tackling this challenge.”“There have been clear, understandable, and well-structured
visualizations of legal requirements tied to the nationalservice regulations for fire brigades in Germany, as wellas the Hesse state law for fire protection and disaster
control, and the individual challenges of each event,particularly those events pertaining to the refugee crisis,”
Hose said.

Thanks to the software, the fire brigade was also able
to provide aid to refugees across multiple relief sites in
the region.

Notably, the value of the software goes beyond the refugee
crisis by preparing Kassel Fire Brigade to handle numerous
major events and disaster scenarios.

Creating an ‘Excellent Technology Base’“Crisis situations are generated automatically andcategorized in certain alert categories in Hexagon’s major
event management system,” said Joseph Werneke, headof the command and control center and an incident
commander with Kassel Fire Brigade.

With technology from Hexagon, Kassel Fire Brigade canmobilize its action plans and communications methods
for major event management in a central operating viewthat all appropriate agencies can access, regardless of
where users were located. Since the system launched,
Kassel Fire Brigade has developed and visualized processes
that have led to more widespread sharing of information,
especially in crisis situations.
“By visualizing a situation clearly and comprehensively,and providing the user with greater situational awareness,
Hexagon’s application provides an excellent technology
base,” Hose said. “With one system, all information isavailable in the special operations room, the control
center, and on-site – such as the refugee relief aid sites.
This aspect was a great selling point for the users.”

Categories include fires in special facilities such asindustrial sites, hospitals or schools; chemical accidents;and large-scale traffic accidents. The agency can manually
add extreme weather events, such as storms and floods, andmajor public events, like city festivals and sporting events.
“Each month, we are creating an average of 15-20 events,”
Werneke said. “The entire workflows are visualized andstructured clearly. Comprehensive and up-to-date
information can be accessed immediately by whomeverneeds it.”Comprehensive and up-to-date information canbe accessed immediately by whomever needs it.”Joseph Werneke
Head of the Command & Control Center & Incident Commander,Kassel Fire Brigade

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