FIRIS

The Fire Integrated Real-time Intelligence System (FIRIS) is a program that provides real-time intelligence data and analysis on emerging disaster incidents in California. Funded by the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), the funding supports aircraft, a common operating picture, and near-real-time fire modeling by WIFIRE that is available at the onset of emerging incidents.

It began in 2019 when the Orange County Fire Authority worked with Assemblymember

Cottie Petrie-Norris to fund a new program aimed to improve wildfire support and minimize response time.

The 2020-2021 program uses the Overwatch Imaging platform, which includes an aerial infra-red (IR) platform that integrates cutting-edge technologies provided by Aevex Aviation. That data is fed to Intterra’s wildfire decision support software where WIFIRE retrieves the data for predictive analytics.  

 In addition, WIFIRE is embedded in the FIRIS Fusion Center where all available intel is integrated from CAD, AVL, flight radar, mountaintop cameras, weather sensors, and ground intelligence to formulate the best inputs to an initial attack fire model.

The sharing and exchanging of data amongst different State fire systems will improve communication and cohesion among different fire units. What’s more is the FIRIS program can be utilized at no cost to other agencies during the project.