3D emergency response plan

A 3D emergency response plan: the principle

A 3D emergency response plan starts from a Matterport 3D virtual tour of your building: the Pro3 camera scans the corridors, staircases, exits and service rooms, and Matterport assembles it all into a model you move through freely, with the floor plan view and the measurement tool. We then place, with your emergency measures officer, a tag in front of every element that counts on the day when everything moves fast.

The result is a digital twin for first responders: the firefighter or paramedic walks through the building on screen before entering, locates the entrance closest to the room concerned, the gas valve, the main electrical panel. It is also a tool for management and staff, who prepare their drills on true-to-life premises.

What we place in the tour

Each element receives an information tag (a “tag” in Matterport’s vocabulary), placed in front of it, with text, photo, PDF or link. In a 3D evacuation plan, we usually place:

• exits and evacuation routes, with the associated assembly point;
• fire extinguishers, hoses and eyewash stations;
• defibrillators and first aid kits;
• gas and water valves, and electrical shut-off points;
• fire alarm and electrical panels;
• high-risk rooms: hazardous materials, boiler room, electrical room.

Layers group the tags by theme (evacuation, fire, shut-offs) and the search finds a word across all the content. The 2D floor plan of each storey is included; see the floor plan.

Private access for firefighters and first responders

An emergency plan is not published. The tour stays private and unlisted, password-protected, and Matterport’s views (up to 10 per tour, according to Matterport) separate the audiences: the fire department receives the full view; management and floor wardens, the evacuation view; the public, a lighter version or none at all. See the private and secure tour.

Preparing evacuation drills on screen

Before a drill, routes, assembly points and roles are reviewed in the tour, with new employees or teachers. Afterwards, it serves for the debrief: you show where a route became congested. The same model feeds OHS training and instructions and the equipment register, each in its own view.

Schools, residences, plants, municipal buildings

The emergency measures plan for a school is the most common case: large buildings, many occupants, responders who do not know the premises. In a case study published by Matterport (a Matterport client, not a Panosphere client), Digital Twin Imaging reports that a search of more than 7 minutes dropped to under 30 seconds, across more than 60 public buildings, with about $50,000 saved for one school. The same principle applies to seniors’ residences and health care facilities, plants and municipal buildings: the tour becomes the building’s passport for the fire department. See also our school virtual tours.

Keeping the plan up to date

An outdated plan is worse than none. A tag is corrected online the same day, by your team with access to the Matterport editor ($150 per year, one-hour training session included) or by ours at $90 per hour. When a wing changes, we rescan only that wing and merge it into the existing model; according to Matterport, tags can be exported and re-imported into the new scan. Hosting is included for one year, then from $150 per year.

A 3D emergency response plan with Panosphere 360

Based in Boucherville, we scan schools, health care facilities and municipal buildings across Quebec, in French, in the evening and on Saturday morning if needed. More than 1,000 tours published on Google Maps since 2015, Matterport Service Partner, and a single person, Marc Durand Bréard, from the quote to the one-hour training session included. See our prices and our portfolio, or request a quote.