The National Mutual Aid System (NMAS), a nationwide cloud-based communication system for firefighters that was first announced in October, has opened beta testing in four states — California, Utah, Tennessee and Florida.
NMAS is the product of a partnership between the International Association of Fire Chiefs, Intermedix and spatial analytics company Esri, and the successor to the current mutual aid tool, IAFC’s text-based Mutual Aid Net (MAN).
MAN, which is currently used by 18 states across the country, allows departments in participating sites to request aid from nearby jurisdictions within the same state by entering related zip codes, but does not always result in the most efficient services, Cy Cole, director of federal preparedness at Intermedix, said....continued ...