Tulsa Cuts 911 Calls 74%, XPrize Drones Suppress Wildfires, and AI That Forecasts Smoke Impact
By Joel Knoop, Fire Service Media Producer
Read time: 7 minutes
March 23, 2026
This week: the fire department that cut 911 calls by 74% with a program every chief should study, drones that suppress wildfires before ground crews arrive, and AI that forecasts smoke impact when you're deciding who evacuates first. Plus the SCBA certification that just changed what you can buy.
Tulsa Fire Cuts 911 Calls 74% With Mobile Health Teams, Wins National Award
The Tulsa Fire Department just won the 2026 Excellence in Fire Service-Based EMS Award from the Congressional Fire Services Institute for its Alternative Response Team 2 (ART-2) program. The unit pairs paramedics with care navigators to connect frequent 911 callers to social services, mental health resources, and permanent housing instead of transporting them to emergency departments.
The results are stark. Since 2024, the department has seen a 74% reduction in 911 calls from enrolled clients and a 50% drop in emergency department visits. The ART-2 team operates in downtown Tulsa targeting people experiencing homelessness, providing on-scene medical care plus outreach supplies like Narcan kits, hygiene supplies, and food. The program launched as a pilot in August 2023 and recorded 439 responses in its first year. Four people secured permanent housing and 57 received referrals to social services. Funding comes from the Walgreens Opioid Settlement Fund.
The award was presented March 19, 2026, at the National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner in Washington, DC. The ART-2 team conducts wellness checks, coordinates housing placements, and connects individuals to wraparound services through data-sharing agreements with local hospitals and social service agencies.
The take: This is the model every fire department running 12+ calls a day to the same address should copy. ART-2 addresses the root problem: fire departments aren't equipped to solve homelessness or mental health crises, but they get the calls anyway. Tulsa built a bridge to the people who can actually fix it. The 74% reduction in 911 use proves it works. When you stop transporting the same person to the ED every other day, you free up apparatus, reduce overtime, and let paramedics do what they trained for. The real win is the data-sharing agreements with hospitals and social services. That's the infrastructure change that makes MIH sustainable long-term, not just another pilot program that dies when grant funding runs out.
Firefighting Drones Deploy to Aspen for First-Response Wildfire Suppression
Aspen Fire Department is testing a new fleet of firefighting drones from Seneca that can suppress wildfires before traditional aircraft or ground crews arrive. The drones aim to fill the critical first hours of a wildfire when conditions often prevent traditional firefighting aircraft from flying.
During the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles County, winds were so intense for the first 12 hours that no traditional firefighting aircraft could operate. Seneca founder Stuart Landesberg says the goal is to "supercharge what our firefighters are capable of" by supplementing existing equipment.
Aspen Fire Chief Andersen says his agency doesn't have its own fleet of aerial resources, and calling in traditional aircraft from sister agencies can take hours. The department will receive a trailer with five drones that can be driven close to an incident and launched immediately. If initial tests succeed, Andersen envisions permanent drone bases around the area that could launch as soon as fire is detected.
The take: The first 12 hours matter most in wildfire response. If weather grounds your traditional air support, you need something that can fly anyway. These drones don't replace helicopters - they buy time until the big iron can get airborne.
3M Scott Air-Pak XD and X3 Pro Certified to NFPA 1970 Standard
3M Scott Fire & Safety announced both the Air-Pak XD SCBA and Air-Pak X3 Pro SCBA are now certified to NFPA 1970, 2025 Edition. The standard consolidates multiple legacy standards into a unified framework for protective ensembles including SCBA.
The primary update to both models is a regulatory change to the End-of-Service-Time Indicator (EOSTI), adjusting the low-air alarm set point to more accurately reflect rated cylinder volume and incorporate the required correction factor for air incompressibility at high pressure. Both models offer redundant safety features, enhanced cleanability, and an "As Long As You Own It" warranty.
The Air-Pak XD features a rugged wireformed backframe designed for improved usability and low-profile design to minimize snag points in tight spaces, plus SEMS 3.0 wireless telemetry with increased range. The Air-Pak X3 Pro offers an aluminum alloy backframe, Snap-Change cylinder connection for rapid replacement, and SEMS II Pro wireless telemetry with electronic personnel accountability report (ePAR).
The take: SCBA certification isn't sexy, but it's what keeps people breathing clean air when everything around them is trying to kill them. Having two certified models gives departments choices based on their operational needs rather than forcing everyone into the same platform.
Texas Departments Use AI Modeling to Predict Wildfire Spread in Real Time
Central Texas fire departments are deploying the Mitigate platform, an AI-powered wildfire modeling system developed by Australian fire-science company FiSci. The tool uses data on weather, terrain, and vegetation to simulate how fires could spread and help crews plan ahead.
Pflugerville Fire Department Battalion Chief Heath Doyle says the system "starts to spit out a visual model of what this fire growth may potentially look like," allowing crews to assess risk across different areas. The platform draws from past fires to improve predictions and can look up to two weeks ahead to support decision-making.
Travis County Fire Rescue Chief Ken Bailey used the modeling tool to simulate conditions during recent Red Flag Warning weather. The system showed a meaningful decrease in potential fire growth compared to pre-rain scenarios, aligning with field observations. Lake Travis Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Mike Prather says the department is in early stages of implementation but believes the tool "has strong potential to help departments better understand how wildfires may spread across the landscape."
The take: Wildfire prediction has always been part science, part gut feel. AI modeling turns weather and terrain data into visual forecasts that show you what's coming two weeks out. That's not replacing experience - it's arming it with better information.
EmberPoint Launches to Deploy AI and Autonomous Systems for Wildfire Detection
EmberPoint, a new company founded by PG&E, Lockheed Martin, Salesforce, and Wells Fargo, plans to give first responders and utilities access to artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and integrated command-and-control technologies for earlier wildfire detection and better agency coordination.
CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Louis Ermigarat says the Alert California camera system has already been a game-changer, with cameras sending alerts to emergency command centers that can zoom in and assess fire size and spread. The quick intel allows CAL FIRE to escalate response immediately and keep fires to 10 acres or less 95% of the time when crews arrive within 20-30 minutes.
EmberPoint says it will leverage a "wealth of information" on wildfire prevention and mitigation developed over the last decade, but must first navigate a regulatory process with the California Public Utilities Commission. The company plans to demonstrate its technologies later this year.
The take: When PG&E and Lockheed Martin team up on fire detection, you know someone's writing big checks. The real test will be whether the tech actually reduces detection time or just adds another dashboard to monitor.
George Mason Develops Wildfire Digital Twin That Forecasts Smoke Impact
George Mason University is developing a wildfire digital twin designed to simulate fire behavior in real time and forecast air pollution impacts during fast-moving incidents. The project, led by Professor Chaowei "Phil" Yang, partners with researchers from California State University-Los Angeles, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the City of Los Angeles.
The digital twin combines data from satellites, UAVs, ground observations, and citizen reports to simulate wildfire progress and the effect of potential interventions. It draws in information on fuel sources, moisture, load, consumption, wind speeds, temperatures, and real-time fire sensors. Machine learning modeling calibrates data sets to improve accuracy.
Yang says the goal is "to develop an AI-based system that can provide real-time, high-resolution simulation and forecasting of wildfire behavior and model the resulting air pollution and air quality impacts for better informed public health responses." The system will provide firefighters and local agencies with a range of possibilities and confidence levels for fire movement, helping them make quick decisions about firefighter placement and evacuation priorities.
The take: Smoke kills more people than flames do. A digital twin that forecasts both fire spread and air quality impact gives incident commanders the data to make smarter evacuation calls. That matters when you're deciding who needs to move first.
Read the full story at International Fire and Safety Journal →
Traffic Signal Preemption
Traffic signal preemption has been around for decades, but the technology keeps getting better and departments that haven't revisited it are leaving time on the table. Modern GPS-based systems like Opticom from Miovision (formerly GTT) turn lights green as your apparatus approaches and red for cross traffic, without the old infrared line-of-sight limitations. Normal, Illinois is evaluating the latest generation and expects to cut 15-20 seconds off its 4:28 average response time. A community in Georgia that deployed the same technology shaved 40 seconds off average response and called the improvement "transformational."
See How Opticom EVP WorksWhat we're watching
- Normal, Illinois evaluating GPS-based signal preemption. Could cut response times by 15-20 seconds across the city. Worth watching if your department is still running infrared.
- NFPA 1970 consolidation taking effect. Fourteen separate equipment standards merged into one. Departments purchasing new gear this year need to verify compliance.
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