In the frame of the national exercise “Cerzeto 2021” the info days will be delivered in Italy, Training Centre of Lamezia Terme (CZ) in parallel to three groups to reach about 50 experts from several Italian regions: Sicily, Tuscany, Piedmont, Lazio, Calabria and Campania. In this case the outdoor activity will be carried out during the exercise days on 10 and 11 November in the main site of Cavallerizzo di Cerzeto.
Prometheus, EASeR and BELICE projects with which the CNVVF was coordinator, were presented at the Virtual Exhibition Area in the framework of the 3rd INSARAG Global Meeting:
Below is the link to the video presented on this occasion.
About the 3rd INSARAG Global Meeting
“The network of policy and technical experts will discuss and deliberate on new ways of delivering value-added life-saving assistance, which is fit for future use.Three INSARAG Regional Groups meet annually to plan regional activities and to keep abreast of USAR related issues. With the recommendations of INSARAG Regional Meetings and the endorsement of the INSARAG Steering Group, the INSARAG community felt that there was a need for greater interaction between three INSARAG Regional Groups and therefore decided to hold a global INSARAG meeting every 5 years. This global event is a unique opportunity designed to bring all member countries together from across all INSARAG regions.”
“Prometheus” provides a data flow and exchange management system, linking up with two other DG ECHO-funded projects (EASeR on the Barrier Effect, easerproject.eu and BELICE for the training of local authorities and rescuers on large-scale assessment beliceproject.eu).
Its aim is to develop an efficient system of data collection and management for search and rescue operations (USAR) trying to reduce the time of intervention and improve disaster management, especially in the seismic scenario by developing a more efficient and effective system of data transmission.
In this context, a field exercise was held on 15 September 2021 to test not only Prometheus system, but also to start integrating the system into the French emergency response structure. The exercise was carried out at Luynes, Bouc Bel Air and Gardanne and involved a total 13 mobilised teams from France, Spain and Italy that assessed about 200 working sites in 7 hours.
The main strengths of Prometheus system were its versatility in different emergency scenarios, its multilingual translation, which allows the same information to be given to rescue teams from different countries, its free use, without licences and additional costs, and its easy access and intuitive operation since it is user-friendly.
The French partner of the project proposed to use Prometheus as an advanced operational management system to be integrated in its national structure.
The system was installed on the French server in Valabre for the exercise and the French and Spanish teams have been trained before the start of the testing the previous day. The exercise was also evaluated by an evaluation team.
15th June 2021 – Pisa, Madrid, Nice
On 15 June 2021, Prometheus software was tested with the Spanish and French project partners.
The purpose of the Table Top Exercise was to test and evaluate the advanced version of the Prometheus system, which was implemented after the exercise of the Italian team in December 2020. The Prometheus system is a software developed within the European project of the same name (n.874380), co-financed by the European Commission, DG ECHO – European Civil Protection Mechanism and coordinated by CNVVF. The results of the evaluation are necessary to improve and complete the system before the exercise with field components planned in France in September 2021.
To enable remote working, a fictious land on the border between Spain and France was invented with the aim of having a distance testing while ensuring the use of the system
The exercise simulated an earthquake event to challenge the response system(team and coordination). Then, by assigning roles to qualified ERICAM and EcASC personnel involved in the emergency, the participants were able to interact and test their responses to operational inputs; this allowed them to evaluate Prometheus software, which allows rescuers to systematically collect and share information on the affected area and possible victims, facilitating the coordination of the teams working on the emergency. The direction of the exercise was hosted within the Fire Department of Pisa, Italy. While the Spanish and French skeleton teams worked from Madrid and Nice area.
An evaluation unit assessed the functioning of Prometheus system during the testing.
11 May 2021, Florence
In the Visitor Centre of the historical premises of the Santa Maria Novella monumental complex, offered by the Municipality of Florence and managed by the Tourism and Economic Development Department. This meeting of the Working Group of Prometheus will see the participation of members of the WG from the National Fire Corps and also the Italian Department of Civil Protection as well as some invited experts (Chief Commanders) as well as the evaluators to whom the demo version of the software will be presented. Because of the pandemic, it is not possible to rely on the presence of the experts of ERICAM (Spain) and EcASC (France) who received tailored training on line in March to be introduced and practise also on the demo version of Prometheus. The agenda of the meeting foresees the presentation of features of the software after its testing carried out in a table-top-exercise that took place in Pisa, Italy in December 2020 and before the testing to be held in Spain on 15th June and France from 14th to 17th September 2021. Presentations will be made by some members of the WG and drills on Prometheus will involve the audience.
9 -12 -16 -19 March 2021 – On Line _
The Training Programme was born from the proposal made by CNVVF to overcome the difficulties generated by the current emergency of Covid-19 that blocks any possibility to meet in presence and at the same time to carry out the activities foreseen by Prometheus project abroad. The training programme has been prepared by CNVVF staff and designed to be delivered to the colleagues of ERICAM and EcASC staff on line. As matter of fact, the main objectives were to share the knowledge of the Prometheus system (main characteristics) in view of the testing of it in Spain and France to be carried out in the coming months.
A total of 21 trainees have been admitted to the course: ERICAM (11) and EcASC (10).
The training is provided online on real time in English with an emergency (and maps/videos) prepared to support the presentations; drills are also carried out for the trainees and the “training” area of Prometheus is accessible to all of them.
The activity was designed and delivered by IT Managers of Prometheus from the Fire Dep. of Florence and trainers from Pisa and Pistoia Fire Departments. All of them are also experienced members of the Italian USAR Team.
