@fire

In line with the guiding principle ‘Rapid emergency aid worldwide after natural disasters’, the NGO ‘@fire international disaster response’ provides aid when people or their livelihoods are threatened by disasters.  
The @fire organisation was founded in Osnabrueck/Germany in 2002 and has established itself as a reliable partner for national and international disaster relief. More than 500 members of @fire are dedicated to national and international civil protection on a voluntary and unpaid basis. Since 2014, there has also been an independent organisation in Switzerland, @fire Switzerland, whose members work together with the German team on missions in the Ahr Valley (Germany), the devastating earthquake in Turkey and the wildfires in Saxon Switzerland (Germany), among others.  

As far as the important topic of mission critical communication is concerned, the organisation has so far mainly relied on VHF radio and satellite communication. Recently, @fire's Swiss task forces have been using RugGear's RG750 as their main communication device for secure PoC communication with the ‘Zello’ app. 
The team uses ‘Gaia GPS’ for mapping and orientation, Divera 24/7 for alerting and the ‘Fireboard’ application on the devices for coordinating operations. 

Equipped with the robust MCPTT smartphone from RugGear, managers no longer have to rely on their personal smartphone. With the RG750, they have an extremely robust device at their side that is customised for MCPTT use and can be configured entirely according to the requirements of the respective deployment. 

Head of Communications Holger Sommer from @fire Switzerland comments: "What we particularly appreciate about the RG750 is its reliability, robust workmanship, secure communication and very long battery life. Our emergency services can communicate with each other easily on their worldwide missions thanks to the wide range of functions. I also see the device's ability to localize people as a further safety aspect, which is particularly important for survival in dangerous disaster regions. I already use a RugGear device myself - the RG725 - and am completely satisfied. It has already been through several training sessions and missions. I am delighted with the reliability and performance of the RugGear mobile devices."

@fire-Schweiz decided to use the Zello PTTOC system because the technology is much more powerful than traditional radio or TETRA. PTTOC applications offer the decisive advantage that they work worldwide and have an almost unlimited range thanks to the Internet. Deployments in recent years have clearly demonstrated that mobile radio applications often still work well after disasters. This means that PTTOC applications are extremely reliable and require very little data. The @fire team does not have the problem of a radio licence abroad, as they communicate via the Internet. If there is no internet available in the area, they rely on so-called radio gateways that connect traditional radio systems with Zello.