A few days ago I posted about how a straight forward car fire could play out as video.
You can read it here. It talks about the impact of some content shot on a smartphone and posted by a firefighter.
Following from that, a firefighter tweeted this YouTube footage that goes one better. It’s brilliant. It’s shot from a body camera worn by a watch commander. It shows them directing the response to the fire and the impact of the housefire.
It’s powerful as-live content. You can see it here:
As West Midlands Fire Service say, this pilot is becoming adopted service-wide in the New Year.
What’s the advantage? Brilliant content that captures an incident as it develops. As body camera footage this doesn’t get in the way. There is no issue of a firefighter breaking off from what they are doing just to film. There’s also the benefit of good quality footage that can be used for training and internally as well as shared online and on TV.
To a former journalist like myself, I’m fascinated at how the round of phone calls to fire stations is being replaced by a round of social media checks.
A downside? It’s possible that downloading the film, editing and uploading may prove fiddly. But do the benefits outweigh this? It would seem so.
Would this work elsewhere? It’s tricky to see how day-to-day police, NHS, housing or ambulance footage could be used if people were included on the content. Yet, this Oldham Council video with a Go-Pro does give a taste.
Class, be more like West Midlands Fire Service.
I can’t wait to see the content that emerges from it.