Fire hazard notifications via Satellite, Twitter, Citizen Reports, and Android Apps

Abstract

Humanity has had a long historical relationship with fire. According to anthropologists, the first humanoid species learned to use and control fire approximately two million years ago. Using fire and controlling fire, however, are dramatically different operations. From prehistoric times, uncontrolled fire has brought death and destruction. In more recent historical times, the Roman Empire used slaves and conscripts to fight fires. Since slaves and conscripts did not have the same interest in preserving the empire as freemen, subsequent firefighting organisations in the Roman Empire used freemen instead of slave. In even more recent history, many countries have a proud history of having a volunteer firefighting force. Regardless, however, of whether it is slaves, conscripts, freemen or volunteers who fight the fire, early detection of the fire is critical. In the presence of dry fuel, the rights atmospheric conditions and a source of ignition, wildfires spread easily and quickly. This paper describes a project which combines satellite imagery with crowdsourced fire information collected from citizens and residents in order to provide a fire hazard notification system to participants.