Specialised equipment and solutions
Seeking novel and improved solutions and equipment capable of addressing challenges connected with fighting extreme large-scale fires.
Problem
Extreme Wildfire Events have become increasingly frequent and destructive in recent years, posing significant threats to human lives, ecosystems, and infrastructure. Conventional firefighting methods often struggle to contain and extinguish these intense fires efficiently. The lack of specialised equipment and tailored solutions hampers the effectiveness and safety of firefighting operations, exacerbating the risks and consequences associated with these wildfires.
Why the Problem exists?
Extreme wildfires’ increasing severity and frequency can be attributed to various factors, including climate change, prolonged droughts, invasive plant species, and inadequate land management practices. These fires exhibit unprecedented intensity, speed, and size, overwhelming traditional firefighting approaches designed for more manageable fire conditions. As a result, there is a pressing need for specialised equipment and innovative solutions to address the unique challenges posed by these Extreme Wildfire Events.
Looking for solutions that completely or partially solve the following:
- Equipment that enables firefighters to be more precise and safer when carrying out extinguishing manoeuvres.
- Equipment that enables frontline firefighters to constantly be aware of their positioning, the fire position, water available, radiation levels and pollutants.
- Provide to central command information on local conditions, images, etc.
- Enable the discovery and recovery of firefighting equipment at night in a forest (examples: hoses are hard to see due to smoke and vegetation).
Requirements
- Explore cost-effective solutions and partnerships for systems.
- Meet the technical requirements of firefighting equipment.
- Compatibility with existing solutions.
Limitation(s)
- Interoperability with legacy systems.
- Connectivity infrastructure.
- Constraints due to data availability, quality, and consistency.
Fire Management Phase(s)
Detection & Response
Living Labs
Galicia-Spain Living Lab; Bulgaria Living Lab.
Voice of the Living Lab(s)
“A tool that will allow Operatives to be more precise when carrying out extinguishing manoeuvres in the new type of forest fires“.
“The new type of fires is characterised by their very high intensity and the enormous amount of water needed to put them out, so the colder the fire, the less water will be needed, since in the bush, the amount of water is limited to that which the fire engines can carry. – maintain the water inside the tanks of fire engines at 4̊ C“.
“Many hoses are lost at night when extinguishing forest fires, and hoses are very expensive. – Flexible photoluminescent hoses 25 mm Ø for forest fire fighting“.
“Purchasing, maintaining and training personnel to operate modern fire detection and response equipment is financially expensive. (…) There is no regulatory requirement for harmonisation between them. Budgetary, state departments are chronically experiencing difficulties in financing. There is no common, coordinating unit to unite efforts at the national and regional level to provide modern fire-fighting equipment. The available contacts are rather a personal initiative of individual executives“.