Wildfires in the United States cause a staggering amount of damage. Wildfires burn an average of 7.3 million acres per year and cost an estimated $2 billion to fight. The total yearly economic losses of these devastating disasters approach $20 billion.
What’s even more devastating— especially for those who have lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods— is that most wildfires are preventable. In fact, humans cause more than 80 percent of the wildfires in this country, largely through simple ignorance and carelessness.
Wouldn’t it be better to prevent the deaths and losses before they can occur, rather than risk more lives and expense trying to save people and homes from an already raging fire? That was the question a former wildland firefighter and two mobile app developers asked themselves when they teamed up at Startup Weekend Chandler this past summer.
Why not make a game that would be fun to play and teach people how to prevent wildfires at the same time? By the end of the weekend, they had created a basic prototype of Fight the Fire and received the Stiffler Technology Award for their work.
They decided they believed in the idea’s potential enough to continue the project. Now, four months of hard work later, their app is available for download on the App Store.
Fight the Fire offers fun, fast-paced action that puts players into the role of firefighters, battling to save land and homes from spreading wildfires. Using chainsaws and helicopter water drops, players also learn important safety information about how wildfires spread and how to prevent them.
“Fight the Fire’s gameplay is a perfect fit for mobile, and distributing it on the App Store allows us to spread fire safety awareness to wide audience for a very low cost,” said Eric Fram, app developer the designer for the project. “It’s been a great experience creating an app that can create social good.”
The app developers--a father and son who co-founded the mobile app company Zippy Brain, Inc.-- studied how to incorporate real principles of fire spread into the game and demonstrate the importance of time and preparedness in fighting wildfires. They scaled all of that down to fit on mobile devices, the kind that people have with them every day, so fun and education could occur anywhere, anytime.
Ariel Strong, the ex-firefighter, created educational content to give users easy, concrete actions they can take to keep themselves and their families fire safe, along with important and unusual information about wildland fires.
All of the team focused on making the game engaging, fun to play, and visually interesting.
“My happiest moment in this project was when a 10 year old boy played the game for the first time, and after playing a round exclaimed, ‘That was awesome!’ I knew then that we had the mix of fun and content right. He didn’t realize he was learning something, he was just having a good time,” said Strong.
Future plans for the app include partnering with fire departments, schools, and other organizations to help them actively use the game in their outreach and education efforts. In an age of tight agency budgets and strained resources, “Fight the Fire” is a free tool that firefighters and educators can use to increase public awareness and safety.
And, in this “Age of the App,” a mobile game is a dynamic, interactive answer to the static fire prevention bumper stickers and refrigerator magnets of yesteryear.
Fight the Fire is now available as a free download for iOS on the App Store.
For more information on Fight the Fire, go to www.FightTheFire.co
