Effectiveness evaluation of Internet of Things-aided firefighting by simulation

With the emerging Internet of Things technology, the world is facing rapid changes in all areas; firefighting is no exception. Conventional firefighting is a dangerous occupation which involves saving lives and property from fires. The skills of firefighting have not changed greatly over the years; hence, using the IoT to aid firefighters is a way to improve their performance. Due to the lack of research on implementing the IoT in the firefighting domain, the objective of this study was to use the quantitative method to gain insights into the usefulness of using the IoT as an aid to firefighting. A Monte Carlo simulation was developed for processing the detailed firefighting interactions in situations of uncertainty. After the verification of the simulation model, the results showed that the search time ratios of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to conventional firefighting for various levels of severity of fire were 30.09, 26.69, and 22.24%. The search and rescue time ratios of UAV to conventional firefighting were 48.27, 35.95, and 31.87%. The most important of these statistics is that at least 50% of the time spent by firefighters on the scene of the fire can be reduced by using the Internet of Things. All of the above data were analyzed usingt test, which showed significant improvement when the Internet of Things was implemented in firefighting. The contribution of this study is to present quantitative results for proving the value of integrating the Internet of Things into firefighting.