BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Fire Department is launching a new app to help homeowners protect their property from wildfires — the app is like having a firefighter right in your pocket, showing you in real-time the things you need to change around the exterior of your home.
- Developed in partnership with Janice Research and the Western Fire Chiefs Association, the app uses AI to provide real-time recommendations on changes needed around the exterior of homes.
- The app aims to mitigate wildfire risks by identifying hazards such as plants too close to doors and debris in gutters.
- Currently in beta phase; residents can sign up to test the iPhone app until Nov. 30.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
The Boise Fire Department is launching a new app to help homeowners protect their property from wildfires.
I'm your neighborhood reporter Jessica Davis and the app is like having a firefighter right in your pocket, showing you in real time the things you need to change around the exterior of your home.
Boise firefighters work year-round to prevent property loss from fires and now a new wildfire mitigation app aims to help them out.
Boise Fire Assistant Chief Romeo Gervais says, "Identifying different things such as plants to close to the doors, debris in your gutters, all those kinds of things that lead to wildfire risks that we want to mitigate to reduce that risk."
In partnership with Janice Research, Western Fire Chiefs Association, Team DSGN, the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation. The app uses AI to show homeowners what changes they should make around the exterior of their home.
"For example, if we click on gutters it'll zoom to that gutter and it shows you different things on the gutter," Gervais says.
Right now, the iPhone app is in its beta phase and residents can sign up to test it out.
Gervais says, "We have a pretty robust fire mitigation program here and have had that for a number of years so we had a lot of data and input to start with that they wanted to use to start building that program out."
He says, "As you can see there's a number of different links if you will or jump to's and it just kind of walks you through how what the different risks are."
Even though the Foothills and South Boise see a lot of fire activity Assistant Chief Romeo Gervais says the reality is wildfires can happen anywhere in the city making this app an important tool for all residents."
"When you look at Hyatt Lakes Reserves in Northern Boise that creates a wildfire risk in the middle of the city so while those are our heightened areas and where we focus a lot of our efforts on wildfires the reality is wildfires are risk throughout the entire community," says Gervais.
Homeowners have until Nov. 30 to sign up to become a beta-tester for the app.
For more concerned homeowners who want to talk to a specialist in person, you can contact the fire department and a trained wildfire specialist will do a walk-through around your property.
