Innovative Technology
Fire safety village teaches valuable life-saving skills
As an Indianapolis firefighter and medic, URC dealer Josh Ammerman of Ammerman’s Electronics knows the importance of fire safety. Earlier this year, he put his URC systems integration skills to work on an amazing community initiative called The Firefighters Survive Alive, an innovative fire safety program.
Survive Alive Village is a hands-on educational facility that utilizes a two-bedroom home environment with simulated fire and smoke to teach students the life-saving skills required escape the perils of a fire. The educational programs are intended for children of all ages, but especially those in the second grade.
Designed to provide an immersive and memorable experience for the students, the Survive Alive Village offers hands-on training by real Marion County firefighters. Children have the opportunity to escape from a simulated fire situation, use a fire extinguisher to extinguish a simulated kitchen fire, practice making 911 calls, visit the severe weather room and much more.
“We use URC Total Control to activate the systems and demonstrations throughout the home,” said Ammerman. “This is a very unique system. A lot of out-of-the-box thinking and planning were required to make it come together.”
The fully-integrated Total Control system allows instructors to easily operate the demonstrations and simulated fire safety situations throughout the home. Ammerman created triggers for some activities, resulting in an exciting and realistic experience for the students.
Instructors can set off smoke detectors, control a simulated fire and turn on lights for a simulated fire engine. They can even play audio that mimics a fire engine being dispatched, control heated floors during fire evacuation drills to simulate a hot door and activate exhaust fans to evacuate simulated smoke. The instructors also use the system to trigger public service announcements from the Indianapolis power and gas companies.
The automated Survive Alive Village features a variety of URC Total Control products including an advanced system processor, DMS-1200 amplifier, SNP-2 streaming music player, TKP-5600 in-wall touchscreen keypad, TRF-ZW2 Z-Wave® Gateway, Z-Wave lighting and more.
URC commends the work of Ammerman Electronics and the many URC dealers around the world who use their system integrations skills to enhance their communities and improve the lives of those who live there.
Every year, URC recognizes the best URC system installations with our annual URC Unsurpassed Awards Competition. Ammerman Electronics and the Survive Alive Village received this year’s award for Most Unique Integration. Congratulations to Josh and the team!
