Development of an ontology for the representation of firefighters’ data requirements during building fire emergencies

Abstract

Firefighters require accurate and timely information regarding a building and its environment to perform their duty safely and effectively during a fire emergency. However, due to the chaotic nature of building fires, firefighters often receive erroneous, conflicting, or delayed information that can affect the outcome of a hazard. In this paper, we propose a solution in the form of an ontology that defines building and environmental data needed by firefighters during a building fire emergency. The ontology can be a basis for developing intelligent tools and systems that collect building and environmental data from different data sources and provide comprehensive information to firefighters. It can also facilitate the data exchange process between the different personnel involved in emergency response. The ontology was developed by following the METHONTOLOGY method, and it was implemented using the web ontology language (OWL) in Protégé 5.5.0.