Infrared Fire Alarm for Vehicle Protection

Abstract

The occurrence of wildfires is a matter of preoccupation, specially in Portugal. In those disasters, many fire fighters are deployed to try put out the flames. However, when driving to the fire or away from it, the vehicles carrying the fire fighters might be in a dangerous situation, whether it is from being surrounded by flames or because of a drop in the levels of oxygen. The aftermath of the wildfires is also a focal point, since it’s hard for the fire fighters to verify its perimeter looking for possible reignition points. To overcome these problems, two modules were created. The first behaves like an alarm for fire fighting vehicles, verifying the surrounding temperatures and the oxygen levels inside the vehicle. If the vehicle is found in a dangerous situation, a message of emergency is sent to a central server, with the coordinates of the vehicle and the type of danger, in order to someone send help. The second module works like a scanner installed in a vehicle, collecting an array of temperatures in different positions, to analyse the perimeter of the wildfire and detect possible reignition points. This project will help central communication stations to acknowledge the safety state of fire fighting vehicles, as well as to have a more efficient aftermath analysis of wildfires.