Battling wildfires from within
This 3D simulation offers a glimpse into the fierce and unpredictable nature of extreme fires in a safe, virtual environment.
Interacting with bushfires from inside the fire front is the goal of this ambitious educational endeavour.
An artificial intelligence-driven visualisation platform is set to revolutionise how scientists, firefighters, and ordinary people understand the behaviour of wildfires.
Developed by UNSW Sydney’s iCinema Research Centre, the iFire platform creates immersive, 3D simulations of extreme fire events, allowing users to experience their unpredictable nature at full scale in a safe virtual environment.
Scientia professor Dennis Del Favero, the project’s lead researcher, said the technology addressed the increasing threat of wildfires driven by climate change, allowing users to imagine beyond what is possible with human cognition alone.
“Wildfires are a whole new generation of fires,” Del Favero said. “We’re experiencing accelerating levels of global warming which are leading to fires of a scale, speed and violence never before seen in recorded human history.”
By using real-world data, he said, the system reproduces the visual, sensory, and "unique acoustic qualities" of wildfires, offering a previously unachievable level of realism.
"We’re experiencing accelerating levels of global warming which are leading to fires of a scale, speed and violence never before seen in recorded human history."
The iFire platform has applications across multiple sectors, according to Del Favero. For emergency responders, it can provide advanced training and decision-making tools, while designers and artists can use it to explore and convey to viewers the more personal impact of fire on the environment.
The iFire AI computer graphic installation has been selected for exhibition at Melbourne Design Week in May in an event that aims to bring together designers, educators, and businesses to help shape the future.
The system is also being developed to support fire-vulnerable communities through a geo-based augmented reality app, allowing local councils to explore potential fire behaviour.
“Situational awareness is critical in a wildfire. It’s a bit like being in a combat zone,” Del Favero said. “We’re developing a way of visualising this type of dynamic by using artificial intelligence to drive the visualisation so that the fire behaves unpredictably according to its own logic.”
As well as bringing bushfires to life for everyday people, the iFire platform is also being developed as a training platform for firefighters.
Fighting fires in 3D
UNSW’s iCinema Research Centre launched a five-year collaboration with Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) last year to replicate real-world fire scenarios for use in bushfire and urban-incident training.
Based at FRNSW's Emergency Training Academy in Orchard Hills, iFire's immersive 3D visualisations will recreate three real-world case studies: a pine-plantation fire, a grass fire, and the 2020 US Bridger Foothills Fire.
“In each of these scenarios, users will be able to adjust variables to experience in real-time the influence of changes in factors for wind speed, fuel load and temperature on the behaviour of fire,” Del Favero said.
“The system allows groups of commanders and firefighters to immerse themselves in high-fidelity real-world fire landscapes ... and more effectively prepare for their unpredictable and life-threatening behaviour.”
NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said the initiative would transform emergency preparedness.
“This technology can effectively put our firefighters in the centre of a simulated fireground or other emergency, allowing them to develop important incident response skills and prepare for the real thing.”
*Professor Dennis Del Favero presented iFire and other projects at last week's Climate Action Week Sydney.
The iFire program connects global researchers and 3D immersive systems in an AI environment to visualise unpredictable, extreme fire fronts such as those of the Australian Black Summer 2019/2020 and Los Angeles 2025. The 3D systems are networked to allow users to interact with the fire ground by sharing the same 3D setting across a variety of platforms - from mobile 3D cinemas, 3D LED walls, 3D head-mounted displays and laptops and tablets. The underlying AI framework analyses, learns from and responds to individual and group behaviour in real-time.
