Built with the people who go toward it.

CERES is a complete emergency response platform for fire and chemical incidents: incident command, the EPA and NOAA hazard models, the 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook, live gas detectors and weather, and 95 responder tools on one map that runs in any browser. It is built with fire departments, hazmat teams and chemical plants across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, and shaped by what they asked for on scene. Two sheets say what it does for a team and for a plant. Two more list what is under the hood.

For hazmat teams: the zone on the map before the first unit arrives, and every crew member accounted for
For plants: alarms that mean something, the plume from your own detectors, and the neighbors warned first
For both: the same picture on the truck, in the command post and in the control room, and a record the review can trust

A sensor-driven ammonia scenario over a coastal city: red, orange and yellow zones, the population inside each, wind-confidence lines and the impacted places — One detector reading over a coastal city: the zones, the people inside each one, where the plume goes if the wind shifts, and the places to call first.

Five sheets, two audiences

Two product sheets are written from the responder's side and the plant's side. Three capability sheets list what is under the hood. The product sheets print on three or four pages each, the catalogs on four to six, the capability reference on about a dozen.

CERES for hazmat teams

Fire departments, hazmat teams, city and county emergency management

Six moments of a call, from the placard read at a hundred meters to the report and the drill, written from the responder's side, with what CERES does in each.

Open the hazmat teams sheet

CERES Live Facility

Chemical plants, refineries, terminals, industrial parks and their fire brigades

Six moments at a plant, from an ordinary shift to the review: run the response well, keep your people and your neighbors safe, and be able to show it.

Open the facilities sheet

Hazard models

Modelers, EHS engineers and anyone who has to defend a number

Every dispersion, fire, explosion and radiological model CERES runs, the published basis of each, the inputs it needs and what it draws on the map.

Open the hazard models sheet

Tools and calculators

Everyone on the apparatus, in the command post or in the control room

95 tools in nine groups, from placard to triage to foam supply, each with the standard behind it. Most are free with any CERES account.

Open the tools catalog

Capability reference

Procurement, RFP evaluators and anyone who needs the full list

Everything CERES does on one page, section by section, with the standard or data source behind each capability: identification, every model, maps and GIS, feeds and weather, detectors, the entry team, decon, medical, command, collaboration, notification, the record, planning and training. English only.

Open the capability reference

The Command Board with command, hazmat branch and responsible-party assignments — The Command Board: crews on assignments, one-tap PAR, air timers, MAYDAY, and the ICS 214 writing itself.

Incident Weather showing the wind rose with the hazard sector, stability class, heat, lightning and rain flags — Incident Weather: the forecast read as a size-up, with the approach sector and the next wind shift.

CERES map of an ammonia rail-car scenario at night over Haverstraw, New York: the ERG isolation circle and protective-action sector, the ERG scenario panel and the Threat Zone list of the places inside each distance — An ERG event at night: the isolation and protective-action distances on the map, turned to the wind, with the population and the places inside each.

Under the hood, briefly

The full model list and the 95-tool catalog have their own sheets. This is the short version.

Hazard models: ALOHA 5.4 source terms and dispersion from the US EPA and NOAA, run natively; plumes driven by your own detectors; releases inside a building and the outdoor plume their exhaust makes; the ground charted along every plume, with a warning when it is too uneven for a flat-ground model, and a side view of heavy-gas clouds; SCICHEM puff dispersion for wind shifts, calm air, particulates and soot deposition, with complex terrain, as an optional module for HAZMAT Team (Live Facility includes SCICHEM, with complex terrain as an option); Pro models for fire, explosion, boilover, battery fires and radiological releases; each one documented with its basis.
Guidance built in: ERG 2024; NIOSH Pocket Guide; CAMEO Chemicals; CHEMM and REMM; FEMA ICS 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208, 211, 214 and 233; NFPA 1584 rehab; DHS-ATF standoff cards; 1,300+ chemicals with every property labeled with its source.
Tools: 95 tools and calculators in nine groups that follow the incident, attached to it so every result lands in the record, from vehicle rescue sheets to decon in the field and pipelines. Most are free, and Infectious Disease is free on every plan. Each has a how-to tour, most with a practice mode.
Live data: Gas detectors and met stations over Modbus, OPC, PI and AVEVA CONNECT (on request), MQTT, serial and the Blackline, Honeywell/RAE and Industrial Scientific clouds, on a Gas Detectors board; The Weather Company; radar, NWS alerts, air quality, wildfire, flood, earthquake and outage feeds; rivers with their flow, railroads, roads, neighborhoods and pipelines on the map; AIS vessels on request.
People: My Status, team status board, PAR roll calls, a roster joined by QR code with a phone-only Status & Tasks role, location shared only while responding, Command Board accountability, responder emergency alarm, incident chat with @mentions and push, video calls and shared documents on the incident. Personnel Manager keeps every responder's own exposure record, started automatically at the On Scene check-in, and each member logs the Preliminary Exposure Reduction steps (NFPA 1851) from the phone.
Training: Six story missions on a private exercise incident with the real tools, guided to learn and tested to qualify; fifteen Basics lessons on the tools and models; three incident-command lessons; the chief's team matrix with curricula and assignments.
Languages and units: 11 languages including the help: English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Romanian, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Malay and Hebrew (Hebrew by link); every language but English on paid plans; metric or US units per user.
Runs on, delivery: Any modern browser on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, nothing to install; iOS and Android apps; the Command Board keeps working offline. Cloud service at ceres.vlahi.com or a private deployment; optional two-factor sign-in, or Microsoft, Google and Apple accounts.

Products

Four products and a free version, licensed per site. CERES First Responder is the communications product, for fire departments, and Vulnerability and Risk the hazard-modeling product, for planners; HAZMAT Team includes both, and Live Facility includes everything in HAZMAT Team. For a quote, write to sales@vlahi.com.

CERES Free

One responder, no cost

The ALOHA direct, puddle, tank and gas-pipe sources, the ERG, the map and past scenarios, plus the Command Board, the incident record, Training, Identify Chemical, the Chemical Profile and the free tools.

CERES First Responder

Fire departments

Everything in CERES Free, plus chat and video, My Status and the status board with PAR and MAYDAY, field photos, the shared triage list, CERES Docs and Sheets, public alerts and SMS call-down, the equipment register with its due dates, Incident Weather and the eleven fire and rescue calculators (a tank in fire, a battery, a pool fire, the smoke, a gas leak, a release inside a building, two chemicals mixed, a tank boilover, a fuel spill), for a department without a hazmat team. For 30, 60 or 120 members, bought online with a card.

Vulnerability and Risk

Planners and EHS

Everything in CERES Free, plus the Pro models (fire, blast, boilover, battery, radiological, nuclear) and Pro calculators, the EPZ Directive 071 tool, vulnerability zones, threat at a point, population impact and head counting, your own predefined scenarios, Tier II, RMP, E2 and Seveso data, advanced reports, team location tracking, Incident Weather and CERES Docs and Sheets.

HAZMAT Team

Responders, police, military, CBRNE

Everything in CERES First Responder and in Vulnerability and Risk, for the whole team on one shared site, plus detectors and met stations, live weather and traffic, sensor-driven plumes and locate source, odor complaints, live camera video, a Command Board that works offline, and full history. Optional: SCICHEM puff dispersion with wind shifts, calm air, longer releases and complex terrain.

Live Facility

Plants, terminals, industrial parks

Everything in HAZMAT Team for your plant, with SCICHEM puff dispersion included: wind shifts, calm air, runs of up to eight hours, particulates, soot clouds and deposition, and continuous monitoring of your detectors and weather. Option: SCICHEM complex terrain*.

* Hills and valleys around the plant, at additional cost.

To the people who go toward it

The measure of CERES was never the feature list. It is whether the zone was right, whether the crew came out, and whether the report told the truth. That part is your work. Ours is to make sure nothing in the software stands between you and it.

Thank you for going toward it. Vlahi Systems