DHS S&T Seeks Technologies for Detecting Survivors in Collapsed Buildings

The Department of Homeland Security‘s Science and Technology Directorate is seeking sources of tools that can help first responders find people trapped in collapsed buildings.

S&T is specifically interested in technologies that were developed as part of a previous Small Business Innovation Research or Small Business Technology Transfer award from a federal agency.

Offerors have until March 16 to respond to the Other Agency Technology Solutions request for information, S&T said Monday.

The directorate said that its SBIR program is helping the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Urban Search and Rescue branch develop subterranean remote search technologies.

FEMA’s US&R system is made up of federal disaster response task forces that the agency can deploy to structural collapse disaster areas.

Through the new RFI, S&T hopes to find solutions that can be transitioned or commercialized to expand the US&R task forces’ arsenal of authorized search and rescue equipment.

Fred Endrikat, chief of FEMA’s US&R branch, said that the first responders need technologies that can help them accurately and non-invasively find survivors through obstructions.

He highlighted the challenges that responders faced after the deadly collapse of the Champlain Tower in Surfside, Florida.

Companies with potential solutions may attend the Deconstructing SBIR: Detecting Trapped Survivors webinar on the afternoon of Feb. 15 Eastern Time to prepare for the RFI.

S&T said that representatives from DHS’s SBIR program and FEMA will attend the event to discuss the RFI’s technical needs.