As summer approaches comes the threat of bushfires. Earlier this month, an out-of-control fire on Sydney’s northern beaches burned more than 100 hectares of bushland, threatening nearby homes.

Climate change is making bushfires bigger, hotter and faster. Previously unthinkable disasters, such as the ‘Black Summer’ megafires in Australia in 2019/20 and those that devastated Maui, Hawaii in August 2023, are becoming more frequent.

Firefighters risk their lives to fight fires. However, many of them are not significantly and comprehensively prepared to respond to irregular and extreme fires. This increases your risk of injury or worse. It can also make it difficult for them to make the best decisions.

To solve this problem, the University of New South Wales iCinema Research Center created iFire. This state-of-the-art training system allows firefighters and rescue services to virtually teleport into a burning landscape and train in real action. It could revolutionize the way we prepare for other natural disasters as well.

Megafires are becoming more frequent

The number of extreme wildfires has doubled over the past decade. These fires can combine with the atmosphere to create their own weather systems, generating multiple fire fronts. As the planet continues to warm, the situation will only get worse.

Much current research is focused on understanding these worsening fire threats. This is important. However, the data and charts do not significantly prepare firefighters for how to respond to such extreme, unpredictable fires.

The missing piece is “experience-based readiness.”

It helps firefighters prepare through virtual experience and exercises how to respond to real and future extreme fires through immersive scenarios. This can be done in a large-format, three-dimensional cinema or on a smart tablet or phone.

Bonfire simulation

The iFire collaboration is based on iCinema’s award-winning iCasts immersive training system for mine workers.

Since its development in 2008, iCasts has exposed and trained thousands of miners and planners to simulate known hazards before they go underground. This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of serious injuries in Australian mines and saved many lives.

iFire takes a similar approach. It uses a combination of mathematical modeling of real-world fires provided by CSIRO’s Data61 research institute, advanced visualization and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to recreate immersive simulations of three real-world case studies: a pine plantation fire, a grass fire and the Bridger-Foothills 2020 fire in the US.

The system places fire departments at the center of simulated fires using immersive cinematic scenarios. Crews feel as if they were physically present. They can experience the fire from any point of view – from a bird’s eye view or on the ground – at any time and interact with it interactively.

Importantly, the scenarios are not static reproductions of past events. Fire crews and incident commanders can adjust variables to understand the impact of changing conditions. For example, they can change air temperature or wind direction and see how this affects fire dynamics in real time.

This allows them to better perceive risk and practice making key decisions in preparation for when they find themselves on the scene of a fire and under enormous pressure to act quickly.

A more advanced system

iFire is now in the hands of those who need it. It was recently installed at the NSW Fire and Rescue Academy in Sydney, using a 130-degree three-dimensional cinema theater.

UNSW’s iCinema Center and the New South Wales State Fire Service will use iFire to develop frontline response training modules. These modules will provide simulations in which fire crews practice maintaining situational awareness in the face of an unpredictable fire situation. They learn how to make the best decisions in the face of a developing fire.

However, the iFire team is working to build a more advanced artificial intelligence system that learns fundamental and unpredictable fire behavior patterns to create more precise and detailed simulations of these unpredictable fires.

This will enable emergency commanders and firefighters to respond to unforeseen fire threats and be better prepared to protect people and property at risk of flames.

The long-term goal is that the iFire system will eventually enable firefighters using a tablet or other smart display device anywhere and everywhere to experience the look and feel of a potential future fire scenario in real time. It won’t be as immersive, but it will be effective in the field when managing a fire and will improve tactical and strategic responses.

Although iFire was designed specifically for firefighters, the technology behind it can be modified for many purposes. For example, it could be used to better train and prepare emergency workers for other natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.