Wildfire@Home: Personalized Immersive Training for Household Situation Awareness
Published in International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in the Alps (AlpCHI 2026), 2026
As wildfires become increasingly frequent and severe worldwide, at-risk homeowners face greater responsibility in assessing the fire situation and making safety-critical decisions. This requires specific training in situational awareness (SA). However, the effectiveness of conventional wildfire response training (WRT) methods (e.g., videos, brochures) is limited, as they cannot replicate the unpredictability of wildfires nor provide real-world context. This research introduces Personalized Immersive Training (PIT), a novel paradigm designed to embed WRT in real-world contexts. We implemented PIT in Wildfire@Home, intending to increase homeowners’ SA capabilities. Learners first use a desktop wildfire simulator to build mental models of how terrain, vegetation, and wind shape fire spread. Then, experience a realistic and immersive 3D rendering of the simulation in a VR wildfire visualizer. Learners can personalize the training scenario by uploading 3D models and geospatial data.
Recommended citation: Tianyi Xiao*, Yan Feng, Suvodip Chakraborty, Peter Kiefer, Phoebe O. Toups Dugas, Martin Raubal. (2025). Wildfire@Home: Personalized Immersive Training for Household Situation Awareness. In 1st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in the Alps (AlpCHI 2026).
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