As we approach the one year anniversary of the devastating downtown fire that tore through Christies Office Plus, Massey Manor and other buildings news has been shared today of a thoughtful and potentially life-saving invention of a second-year Communications Engineering Technology student at Assiniboine Community College.
Prarthi Gheewala has developed Count ’n Care, a system that makes use of sensors at an apartment’s door to track when occupants have left the premises in the case of a fire. Data from the sensors would then made available to firefighters at the scene of a fire so that they may learn real-time data about occupants' locations and apply their response efforts appropriately.
The system, said to be inspired by last spring’s fire, has potential impacts for not only apartments but other large buildings such as hospitals and schools.
In a press release sent out by the College today, Gheewala says there is no device currently available with the same capabilities and hopes to take hers to market with an estimated cost of $750 per floor for apartment buildings.
May 19 will mark the 1-year anniversary of the downtown fire, which destroyed three buildings and rendered Massey Manor uninhabitable.