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Meshtastic for Wildfire Fighting in Argentina

About Our Project​

We are WildfireMesh, a collective that integrates the principles of Free Software and the Decentralized Web. Our goal is to strengthen communications for firefighters in Argentina during wildfires, where current methods are insufficient and often fail. We focus on the adoption of Meshtastic, a long-range off-grid communication platform that uses LoRa radios and is 100% open source and community-managed.

Our mission is to facilitate the adoption of these technologies. We plan to do so by providing easy-to-acquire kits, targeted training, technical support, and relevant documentation. We firmly believe that fire brigades and emergency teams will benefit from an accessible mesh network technology that can connect and save lives during natural disasters. We aspire for Meshtastic to become a complementary standard for digital communications, useful as a contingency channel when primary systems fail.

All content generated throughout the project, including documentation (manuals, guides, use cases) and software, will be open source. We are committed to building an active community around this open source content and software, spreading this culture of collaboration and open access to information. We plan to publish everything on a dedicated website, sharing progress, results, testimonials, and documentation of activities.

Blog​

Throughout this project we will be publishing content on this site, but for now we have the experiences that our team members have shared on different platforms. Here are some examples:

  • "A visit to rural Tanzania": An article documenting our exploration of the minimum telecommunications infrastructure needed for remote rural communities, inspiring deployable and self-sufficient solutions.
  • "Tracking boats with Meshtastic": Documentation of a hands-on experience where we applied Meshtastic devices for tracking boat patrols in the Amazon, highlighting the potential of this technology for specific needs. This project also underscores the importance of documenting how to reproduce solutions and create user documentation.
  • Coming soon, we will publish more relevant content about our experiences in "Myanmar" and with "Sudoroom and Disaster Radio" in Oakland.

You can explore these and other contents at nico.today.

ATAK and CRDT Ideas​

We are actively researching and developing the integration of various tools to optimize firefighting operations, recognizing their specific needs in the field:

  • ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit): We have conducted workshops and field exercises with fire brigades, such as the Chiviquín Brigade in Unquillo, Córdoba, where we tested Meshtastic and ATAK together. The experience was very positive, and the brigades expressed clear interest in continuing this conversation to integrate these tools into their operations. ATAK is crucial for situational awareness and real-time coordination.
  • CRDT (Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types): Our project aims to make Meshtastic, already robust for off-grid communication, directly adapted to the demanding operational needs of emergency teams in high-risk situations. This includes the ability to share vital information such as location, instructions, and situational awareness during missions, in a resilient manner against communication failures. The exploration of CRDTs is key to handling data robustly in unstable environments.

Contacts with Organizations​

Our work is grounded in direct collaboration and deep roots in firefighting communities. We have established strong relationships with volunteer fire brigades in Argentina, who have been fundamental in validating our hypotheses and showing great interest in our solutions:

  • We have been in direct and ongoing contact with brigades in several Argentine provinces, including Sierra de los Padres and Coronel Dorrego (Buenos Aires), Unquillo (Córdoba), and El Bolsón (Río Negro).
  • These brigades have not only validated the urgent need for better communication solutions, but have also expressed great interest in Meshtastic as a complementary tool for their operations.
  • The willingness of fighters to test equipment and develop joint methodologies has already been validated, as in the workshop with the Chiviquín Brigade, where their response was "clear: let's continue this conversation". This interaction demonstrates our ability to collaborate directly with beneficiary communities.
  • We have supporting documentation from these brigades, such as executive summaries and endorsement letters, validating the importance of our proposal from the perspective of those on the front lines of firefighting.