State fire agency taps augmented reality to train for ‘high-risk missions’

In California, firefighting flight crews are stepping into the future of public safety training. Using an augmented reality simulation, the state’s fire department is preparing personnel to navigate dangerous fire events — without the danger. 

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, has turned to technology to train its helicopter and hoist pilots. The augmented reality-enabled Hoist Mission Training System manufactured by Bluedrop allows agency personnel to “practice high-risk missions without the risk,” said Linnea Edmeier, CAL FIRE’s aviation communications officer. By using the simulation tool, CAL FIRE can reduce the expense and environmental expense of deploying aircraft for live training. 

Hoist rescues, where a hoist or winch is used from a helicopter to rescue people in high-risk situations, don’t occur every day for every CAL FIRE base, and staff undergoes training during winter months. The AR-enabled training helps staff practice procedures without being dependent on weather and builds repetition “so that when you do have to put that into play, people are ready,” Edmeier said.

The simulations are designed to replicate California’s landscape and infrastructure, and trainees interact with modeled CAL FIRE aircraft to provide crews “as close to a real experience” as possible, Edmeier said. Training models can also be configured to include conditions like a change in wind patterns or direction to prepare crew members for unexpected events they might encounter in the real world. 

Flight crews receive AR training at the CAL FIRE Aviation Headquarters at the McClellan Airfield near Sacramento, and officials are working on developing a mobile unit that can travel to CAL FIRE’s 11 bases for on-site training sessions.

In general, crew members start their training in a classroom setting, where they learn about hoist rescues through PowerPoints. Crews then practice dry runs of rescue missions in grounded aircrafts, so they can rehearse the motions of operating the machinery and using mission-specific dialogue, said CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Aaron Smith. Crew members even use a sandbox to model terrain, machinery and fire behavior using props, but that training “only gets us so far,” he added. 

The technology shows real promise, experts said. Initial research shows signs of augmented reality and virtual reality, “being a much more effective method for training, in addition to being a safer method for emergency responders,” said Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst at the Information and Technology Innovation Foundation. 

A study published last year, for instance, found that conventional methods for safety training can have “limited effectiveness in improving knowledge” because a lack of interactivity and engagement can lead to people losing focus on the material they are learning. Augmented reality, on the other hand, is far more effective at keeping trainees engaged. 

For CAL FIRE, the simulator helps training crews put the classroom, sandbox and dry run pieces together so crews can get a better sense of how to raise or lower someone during a hoist rescue, how to properly use hand signals when interacting with other crew members, or how to navigate obstacles, such as the cable getting stuck in a tree.

The augmented reality approach can help standardize training and operation procedures across CAL FIRE bases to reduce errors or miscommunications when they have to collaborate during actual emergencies, Smith said. And long-term impacts of the augmented reality tool could include more efficient rescue operations in the future as the agency develops its workforce’s capabilities with the technology.

Flying an actual aircraft for training could cost the agency about $10,000 an hour, but the simulation costs closer to a few hundred dollars an hour. So despite a high initial cost to develop the simulations and deploy the technology, augmented reality is “definitely a cost benefit,” Smith said. 

Augmented reality and virtual reality tech is becoming increasingly popular as training devices, particularly for industries like public safety, emergency response and health care, Ambrose said. 

For firefighters, augmented reality programs that model their local communities can help staff plan and practice evacuation routes to be leveraged during real life events, Ambrose added. The simulation environment also enables supervisors to share real-time feedback while they are monitoring or controlling the training simulations. 

While augmented reality technology is still in its early days of implementation, Ambrose said signs are pointing to the tech being the future of public safety training, especially as it matures. Government agencies should consider funding the research and adoption of augmented reality technology so they can work on goals like improved service delivery and workflow efficiency, particularly for public safety responses, she added. 

The adoption and implementation of augmented reality in public safety operations, Ambrose said, “is only continuing to grow, and more agencies are continuing to [integrate] these processes into their existing training.”