Open from day one: the FireWatch hardware is open source
Wildfires are getting bigger and faster, and the tools to catch them early are mostly expensive and proprietary. We think early detection is infrastructure — and infrastructure that protects forests should belong to everyone.
So FireWatch is built to be open. The hardware leads the way: the node schematics and bill of materials, the 3D-printed enclosure and the Meshtastic-based firmware are on Codeberg — the German, non-profit code host run by Codeberg e.V. — under the MIT licence. Anyone can rebuild a node. The Laravel backend and the documented ingest API are being prepared for release and will follow.
Our bet is simple. A smouldering fire gives itself away through gases — carbon monoxide, hydrogen, VOCs — long before there is a flame. Cheap sensors can smell that. A LoRa mesh can carry the signal out of the forest. And open data means foresters, fire services and researchers all see the same thing at the same time.
This is a starting point, not a finished product. Come build it with us.
Funding for wildfire prevention: what forest owners can apply for
Many forest owners don't know that wildfire prevention is state-funded. We gathered the programmes across all 16 German states — and the honest route to funding early detection.
Releasing our first open dataset
Anonymised gas, temperature and humidity time series from the demo mesh in the Leipzig floodplain forest — free to use for research and agencies.