Using Serious Games and Virtual Simulation for Training in the Fire Service: A Review

Fire fighting is an extremely physiologically and psychologically demanding occupation, requiring tremendous resources for training personnel as well as incurring significant workplace safety and insurance board (WSIB) costs. Approximately 33% of fire fighter injuries result from exposure to fire leading to the possibility of reducing these injuries through training fire fighters to make better decisions, particularly when under stress. Simulation (and virtual simulation in particular) offers a safe and cost-effective alternative to practice with real fire, offering entry level training to aid fire fighters to reach a specific competency level. With the ubiquity of video game play and advent of new consumer-level physical interfaces for video games (e.g., the Nintendo Wii Fit balance-board and the Microsoft Kinect), serious games (games whose primary purpose is education and training), are able to provide users with innovative interactive techniques that are highly engaging and immersive. This paper reviews the development of serious games and virtual simulation applications that may be utilized for training in the fire service. Current technology allows for the simulation of fire spread and smoke movement along with training certain fire fighting skills and incident command co-ordination. To date, gaming technology is not capable of providing a real world scenario that is completely and faithfully accurate in a dynamic virtual environment. Future work could utilize serious games to also recreate the decision making processes and the physical requirements that fire fighters encounter in an emergency situation. These could be incorporated into a simulation environment where the physical and psychological stresses are analogous to live fire fighting situations.