UBC Okanagan FIRE (Fire Innovation, Research and Education Facility)
Project Snapshot
Project Size: 1,206 gross square metres
Budget: $32 million estimate
Status: TBD
Project Summary
The Okanagan Wildfire Lab will be Canada’s first advanced wildfire science facility dedicated to: wildfire behavior and resiliency testing; hands-on training in advanced fire behavior and proactive fire mitigation (prescribed fire); and development of sensors, cameras, and models to monitor and predict fire risk and behaviour.
The main level of the facility will include a high-bay research space, including drying ovens and a combustion chamber with tilting burn table and wind tunnel. It will have a fire spread analyses suite with high speed, thermal and, hyperspectral camera arrays. The second floor will house training rooms, teaching labs and additional flex space for lab expansion. The facility will have scrubbing technology that ensures smoke is removed before being exhausted from the building.
By enabling wildfire combustion experiments in a controlled setting, the lab will generate critical information on wildfire behavior. It will also test the resiliency of building and landscaping materials/plants in support of FireSmart practices and principles. Offering students in professional programs with hands-on training in fire mitigation, fire ecology, and prescribed and cultural fire, the lab will translate the latest knowledge on mitigating risk before fires occur.
The lab will build on UBC’s work with Rogers and the BC Wildfire Service to create a 5G detection and monitoring system using AI-powered cameras and sensors. Also, it will provide an environment to develop and deploy new sensor technologies with applications in operational fire response and prescribed fire. The lab will also house the BC provincial wildfire camera network, creating a hub for wildfire innovation and emergency response.