BREATHE: An Offline-First Emergency Response Network

Building BREATHE: An Offline-First Emergency Response Network for Local Communities

Emergencies can disrupt the same infrastructure that people rely on to request assistance. During typhoons, landslides, flooding, power interruptions, and road closures, mobile internet may become unreliable while emergency hotlines receive more calls than they can immediately accommodate.

This raises an important question:

How can people communicate their location and need for assistance when conventional communication channels are unavailable or overwhelmed?

This question inspired the development of BREATHE—Barangay Response and Emergency Assistance Through Hybrid Exchange.

What is BREATHE?

BREATHE is an offline-first emergency reporting and coordination platform being designed for Baguio City and other communities with limited or unstable connectivity.

The proposed system consists of three connected components:

A mobile application for citizens
A mobile application for authorized responders
A web-based operations portal for barangay officials

The barangay operations portal will serve as the coordination center. It is intended to help authorized personnel receive reports, verify incidents, locate affected citizens, assign responders, monitor response progress, and review recurring hazards within their area.

How the proposed network works

When internet access is available, an emergency report can be securely transmitted to the backend system and delivered to the appropriate barangay operations portal.

When the reporting device is offline, BREATHE is being designed to explore the use of Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, to detect nearby participating devices. An emergency message may be relayed from one nearby device to another until it reaches a device with internet access or an authorized responder.

Once a connected device is reached, the report can be synchronized with the backend and delivered to the barangay portal.

This creates a hybrid communication model:

BLE mesh or multi-hop relaying for nearby offline communication
Online synchronization when a participating device obtains connectivity
Barangay-level coordination for verification and response
Responder navigation using the reported or last known location

BLE has technical limitations,including range, background restrictions, device compatibility, battery consumption, and operating-system controls. For this reason, the mesh-relay capability remains an area for prototyping and field testing rather than a guaranteed replacement for cellular communication.

What BREATHE aims to support

The planned platform includes emergency and hazard reporting, location sharing, offline data storage, automatic synchronization, responder assignment, official safety alerts, and mapping of routes that may not appear in conventional navigation applications.

ItThe locally mapped routes may include narrow pathways, walking routes, motorcycle-accessible roads, and other barangay-specific access points. ThisThis information could help responders determine a more appropriate route based on their vehicle and the conditions on the ground.

The system may also help barangays analyze reported incidents and identify locations frequently affected by landslides, flooding, road accidents, blocked roads, and other hazards.

Supporting—not replacing—existing emergency services

BREATHE is not intended to replace 911, the CDRRMO, police and fire stations, healthcare facilities, barangay responders, or existing disaster-response agencies.

Its purpose is to provide an additional communication and coordination channel, particularly when internet connectivity is limited or centralized services are experiencing unusually high demand.

The barangay remains central to the proposed response network because it is often the closest organized unit to the affected community. However, successful implementation would still require coordination with local government agencies, emergency services, telecommunications stakeholders, and community members.

Safety, privacy, and responsible development

An emergency platform must protect the people who depend on it. Development must therefore address:

User authentication and responder verification
Protection of personal and location information
Consent and controlled location access
Prevention and review of false or malicious reports
Secure offline storage and synchronization
Audit trails and accountability
Accessibility for children, older adults, and persons with disabilities
Battery-efficient background operation
Testing under realistic low-connectivity conditions

A report should not automatically be treated as verified simply because it was received through the network. The system needs clear verification, escalation, and response procedures managed by trained and authorized personnel.

An ongoing development journey

BREATHE remains a work in progress. Its functions must be prototyped, tested, evaluated, and validated with the people expected to use it—including citizens, barangay officials, emergency responders, disaster-risk professionals, and technical experts.

The goal is not simply to build another application. The goal is to determine whether a practical, secure, and community-centered system can help connect people in danger with nearby assistance when conventional communication becomes difficult.

I will continue sharing the project’s development, technical decisions, limitations, testing results, and lessons learned.

Feedback from the community and emergency-response sector is welcome.