Fire prevention and Big Data: a happy couple?

Technology is used in several areas to prevent things. Within the government, we see more and more examples that prediction of events works better than fight them. We blogged at Extend Limits already about Predpol, a software program used by several US policedepartments to predict crimes. Last week the firefighters of New York announced to start working with a similar prediction system.

Using Big Data, FDNY is going to predict where fires might occur in the city. The predictions are based on 60 variables which are relevant to fires. In this way, risks of older and newer buildings are mapped, allowing the FDNY to make precize inspections of hazardous buildings.

Risk free society or utopia?

This development is intersting in several ways. We exclude risks more and more from our lives. Logical, from an individual point of view. Not in my back yard, is heard a lot. It is a matter of time that we no longer accept risks at all. The bar is consistently raised towards a risk-free society. Utopia, if you ask me.