Titan HST Chief Executive Vic A. Merjanian created an app to help with emergency communications. He is partnering with Exoio founder Shawn Dougherty to make and market new sensor hardware, right, to help pinpoint app users' locations during emergencies. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
On the morning a fire forced the evacuation of her daughter's school, Ruth Kobayashi found out about it when her smartphone bleated out the distinctive tone she knows she can't ignore: the Orange County high school's app-based emergency communications system.
The app, created by Newport Beach, California, startup Titan HST, sent her a series of reassuring messages. The fire was small. It was quickly extinguished. The evacuation was precautionary. All of the students were safe.
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