For all our advances in technology, fire crew safety remains stuck in the past. Worldwide.
In our pockets we carry supercomputer cloud-connected smartphones orders of magnitude more powerful than the computers required to put man on the moon.
And we can satellite track and pinpoint the location of people and products at any location on the Earth to within metres or better.
Yet if you’re a firefighter walking into a burning high-rise, chances are you are still going in blind – forced to guess in conditions that change by the second.
Once a building fills with smoke, even the most experienced crews can’t see more than a few feet ahead – smoke blinds everyone.
Without smart firefighting and building safety technology, most incident commanders are forced to make decisions based on little or no data. Their crews operating in the literal and metaphorical dark.
At Ci Global, we’re here to change that outdated reality. We’ve developed a system that uses connected sensing, autonomous response, and real-time coordination to keep everyone safe. The people already inside the building and the brave rescuers who show up and walk into danger when things go wrong.
In this blog post, I’ll take you through that system and explain how it leads to safer decisions and better outcomes when disaster strikes.
The problem: too little info, too late action
When fire crews arrive at a scene today, they are often stepping into the unknown. There is no reliable data on where the fire is located, how many people are trapped in the building, or which exits routes are still safe and usable. Instead, crews are forced to rely on partial reports from bystanders, occupants, or building staff.
This lack of real-time information has serious consequences. Without clear insight into the state of the fire, crews can lose precious minutes trying to navigate their way around the building. Trapped occupants take longer to find. Evacuations may stall. And every moment of delay increases the risks, not only for the people being rescued but also for the first responders themselves.
Even with theFire Safety (England) Regulations 2022in place, most laws remain reactive – focused on alarms, evacuation, and response once a fire has already started, not prevention or visibility for fire crews.
It’s an uncomfortable truth: how many firefighters have risked – or lost – their lives searching for people who weren’t there? And how many people have died because rescuers couldn’t find them in time?
The challenge is even greater in high-rise fire safety. Fires spread quickly, lifts can’t be used, and escape routes narrow to stairwells alone – raising the risk of panic, congestion, falls, and even crushing. High-rise residential buildings remain one of the toughest challenges worldwide, especially where prevention technology has not kept pace with modern risks. And in every case, smoke makes a dangerous situation worse, cutting visibility to near zero.
The solution: a full picture in real time
Too many lives have already been lost – and too many more will be – unless we move to intelligent building infrastructure that turns passive buildings into active protectors and communicators in an emergency. The good news is, we have already built this technology. It’s called Ci Safe – an intelligent fire safety system that combines prevention with real-time building intelligence.
Originally developed to stop socket-level electrical fires, Ci Safe has evolved into a connected suite of prevention-first fire and building safety solutions. Most of these solutions keep occupants safe by detecting danger and acting before it escalates. But for frontline responders, Ci Safe adds something new: real-time situational awareness and evacuation support.
We call this layer Ci Command & Control, and it includes:
- Ci SafeMap – a live 3D digital twin of an entire building. Far from static blueprints, these dynamic models display real-time sensor readings, occupant locations, and environmental conditions, helping incident commanders see where risks are greatest.
- Ci RemoteView – an AR-compatible headset that enables commanders to see inside a building as if they were physically present, overlaying critical data directly into their field of view like a heads-up display.
- Ci PathFinder – a laser-guided tool for firefighting and evacuation. It combats the reality that firefighters can’t see through smoke by projecting guidance paths that stay visible even in zero visibility. Occupants and responders follow colour-coded laser beams on floors and walls: green for the safest route out, red for the fastest route to the fire.
Individually, these tools help solve challenges that have long hampered fire and rescue teams. Together, they provide a continuously updating, comprehensive operational picture that helps crews act faster, safer, and smarter than ever. The bottom line: Ci Safe protects the lives of the people trapped inside a burning building – and the firefighters sent in to save them.
Emergency responders have long needed real-time visibility and automated decision support. Until now, it simply wasn’t commercially or technologically viable. With Ci Safe, that changes – the impossible is finally within reach, giving fire crews what they’ve always needed.
This isn’t smart tech. It’s smarter protection
Ci Safe may be at the forefront of fire crew safety technology. But getting there first is not what we’re here for. This isn’t about developing the latest smart gadgets or dashboards. This is about building safety-critical, life-saving infrastructure – technology designed to reduce risk for the people who go in when everyone else is getting out.
Every second counts in a fire. By giving responders information they’ve never had before – where the fire is, where people are, and which routes are safe – Ci Safe helps them make better decisions under pressure. Better decisions mean more lives saved, and more crews making it out safely.
Ci Safe isn’t technology for its own sake. It’s smarter fire and building safety – always watching, guiding, and preventing. Even in the worst-case scenario of an out-of-control fire, it gives responders the clarity they need to fight the fire and to bring people out safely – themselves and those they came to rescue.
Reshaping the future of fire crew safety
We know we can’t prevent every fire. But we can stop fire crews from going in blind. That’s the message at the heart of Ci Safe – turning unknowns into actionable intelligence when it matters most.
For firefighters, that difference means the ability to see what smoke hides. For trapped occupants, it means being found in time. And for fire and rescue services worldwide, it means fewer lives lost when disaster strikes. To learn more about the Ci Safe fire safety system and how it supports fire and rescue teams, civil defence, and building safety organisations, and emergency responders, get in touch with us.
