January 8, 2003. RapidMap will never forget the day described in Australia as the "day the drought caught fire". 

On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 8, rolling thunderclouds were at the head of a cold front moving through southern NSW. In the middle of the afternoon the heavens opened. Instead of water, however, the clouds unleashed bolt after bolt of lightning.  The resulting firestorm was to create more than 160 fires, a convection funnel of more than 2400 km, most of them in terrain difficult to access except by helicopter. 

Within 10 days, nearly 1.5 million hectares of NSW with a perimeter of 10,340 kilometres would be burnt.  By the end of summer, four people had been killed and nearly 500 homes had been burned in Australia's capital, Canberra.

When the last of the ashes were cold at McIntyre's Hut a team visited the ignition area of the fire and found a red stringy-bark with a stripe down its trunk caused by lightning. It is still standing even though hundreds of homes may have been turned to rubble.

Australian's live on a continent where bushfires have been a part of the climate for centuries.  As climate change tightens its grip, we need to be as superbly adapted to bushfire as the stringy-bark.

RapidMap and National Geographic have joined forces to add new technology to the armoury of bushfire management.  Containment lines, water-bombing and back-burning are key elements to the emergency response to a bushfire.  However, spatial technology can assist fire fighters to map their terrain, plot the direction of a fire and develop proactive strategies for fire containment.

Post 911 - RapidMap, leveraged their spatial technology and development expertise to develop with National Geographic the powerful yet user friendly  TOPO! Pro mapping software.  

TOPO! Pro Enterprise is now used by fire services and security agencies in USA to provide near real time, interactive applications, which can be used in any emergency management situation.  The result has been 21st century application which can be used in the field to communicate spatial intelligence at amazing speed using commercially available solutions. 

Some professionals in the security sector have referred to this "Data Exchange" innovation as the "Chloe of 24".   

This  RapidMap innovation, means that a field agent can share up to date spatial intelligence and information on potential terrorist activities via his mobile phone or a  fire fighter in the heat of a fire can be provided with real-time information about all aspects of the fire, the terrain they are operating in and the environmental, property and people who are in the area. 

This information means that decisions can be made quickly on the best source of water, the most effective evacuation routes, property or lives at stake and deployment logistics. Overall, we want to help the amazing people who put their lives on the line to protect our country, through providing solutions to improve our effectiveness at fighting infernos like the Canberra bushfire or Cyclone Larry. 

We would welcome an opportunity to show you how..