IBHS - Wildfire Ready App

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) recognized the growing risk of wildfires and wanted to create an interactive guide for homeowners to help make sure they were as prepared as possible. 

Balti Virtual partnered with the IBHS team to create an augmented reality app and virtual reality experience that walks users through multiple areas of a home and neighborhood where primary ignitions typically occur. 

The Wildfire Ready experience begins with a questionnaire to assess the user’s home. Participants are asked whether they have wooden fences if they’ve cleaned their gutters and roof if they have a shed and other potentially fire-causing scenarios. After users have answered all of the questions, they are presented with a house that resembles their current situation - full gutters and all. 

Each potential primary ignition location is explained with custom 3D models and animations. For example: if the user indicated that they have a wooden fence connecting to their home, they will be shown a 3D animation of how a fire can travel down a fence, eventually igniting their house. As the solution, they would be advised to replace the wooden fence with a metal one. Each potential issue is presented to the user and then they are shown visually how to solve the problem. After the user sees all of the potential fire-causing or spreading scenarios relating to their home, the view zooms out to a 3D model of a suburban neighborhood to explain how one home could ignite many neighboring homes as well. The AR and VR experience leaves the user with the message that you and your neighbors can work as a team to be “Wildfire Ready”. 

The custom AR app Wildfire Ready is available to download on both iOS and Android devices. The VR experience was built for the Oculus 2 and is being used by IBHS at tradeshows and in their headquarters. “We’ve had a lot of feedback from our clients who’ve reached out wanting opportunities to help co-brand, and essentially amplify this app to their policyholders. In addition, we saw more engagement from our members than what IBHS had done in the past,” said Ian Giammanco, a Senior Director at IBHS. Read more about Balti Virtual’s work with IBHS here & find out if your home is Wildfire Ready.