Communications network for emergency services personnel

A method for providing a communications network for emergency personnel, comprising:

• providing first and second personal communication systems (PCS) to be carried by respective first and second firefighters in a hazardous environment, wherein each of the first and second personal communication systems includes an onboard data gathering device and a transceiver;
• configuring a base station to communicate wirelessly bi-directionally with the first and second PCS;
• configuring the transceivers of the first and second PCS to communicate with one another over a peer to peer mesh network and to communicate with the base station;
• configuring the onboard data gathering device in the first PCS, to collect PASS data from a PASS system carried by the first firefighter;
• configuring the transceiver in the first PCS, to broadcast the PASS data associated with the first firefighter over the peer to peer mesh network to the second PCS;
• and
• configuring the transceiver in the second PCS, to re-broadcast the PASS data associated with the first firefighter to the base station.

A method of communicating multimedia data from a personal communication system carried by a firefighter to a base station, the method comprising:

• gathering first and second data at a first personal communication system (PCS) carried by a first firefighter in a hazardous environment, the first data being indicative of at least one of a condition of the firefighter and a condition of onboard systems carried by the firefighter, the second data being indicative of the other of the condition of the firefighter and the condition of onboard systems carried by the firefighter;
• wirelessly broadcasting at least one of the first and second data from the first PCS over a peer to peer mesh network;
• receiving the first data, over the network,
• at a second PCS carried by a second firefighter;
• wirelessly broadcasting, from the second PCS, the first data;
• and
• receiving, at a base station, the first data broadcast by the first PCS.