FireGuard

Inspiration

Currently, there are wildfires in California which have been deadly for the past few days. In order to help support the initiative of combating these fires, we decided to develop an s(CASP) system to help first responders and firefighters monitor these wildfires, take safety measures, and combat them while decreasing casualties in areas. This program helps determine critical information that aids firefighters and emergency responders in combating these fires and organizing resources and evacuations.

What it does

This program calculates fire behavior metrics using established fire science equations such as the Rothermel and Byram equations that determine fire intensity, flame length, and flame height. We have also used equations that compute the required safety zone distances to protect firefighters and calculate the burn area and the escape time. Our program also evaluates areas considering a number of risk factors like fuel conditions, weather, topography, population density, infrastructure, etc. This program also provides recommendations for evacuation status and resource deployment by level of risk using the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) and creates a priority list that emergency responders and medical personnel can use.

How we built it

The system was developed through the implementation of scientific fire behavior models and integrated with a wide-ranging risk assessment framework. We implemented core fire behavior calculations, including the Rothermel equation for the rate of fire spread and the Byram equation for fireline intensity, and then developed a multi-factor risk classification system that considers environmental conditions like fuel moisture, temperature, humidity, wind speed-geographical features topography, and human factors-issues such as population density and critical infrastructure. The system uses these inputs to classify areas into five risk levels (Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Extreme) and provides specific recommendations for evacuation and resource allocation. We also have several features that firefighters and fire departments can use that help determine fireline intensity, flame length and height, safety zones, burn area, and escape time so that fire departments can make their work more efficient.

Challenges we ran into

These are some of the challenges we ran into: implementing complex fire behavior equations while maintaining accuracy, creating a balanced risk classification system that properly weighs multiple factors, developing clear decision rules for evacuation and resource deployment recommendations, and ensuring the system remains efficient while processing multiple areas simultaneously.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to successfully integrate scientific fire behavior models and equations into an s(CASP) application that reflects human reasoning and common sense and provides a flexible and complete risk assessment system that provides clear, actionable output for first responders and critical information for firefighters and fire departments as well as multiple area analysis with sorted risk assessments based on the level of fire risk different areas have.

What we learned

We learned about fire behavior modeling, combining multiple environmental and social factors into a single risk assessment, and implementing scientific equations in a practical emergency management system that is relevant to today’s society due to the ongoing fires in California.

What's next for FireGuard

We hope to integrate real-time weather data to calculate more real-time data and collaborate with AI companies that provide video feeds so we can also develop a machine-learning model that can better help combat fires in the future.

Built With

• machine-learning
• prolog
• s(casp)