World-first software to help firefighters save lives

Australian researchers have developed a world-first software program that could help firefighters save lives.

The program uses image recognition software to calculate how many occupants are inside a building at any given time.

"What we're tackling here is totally the unknown," University of Wollongong Senior Professor Pascal Perez told 9News.

"These people that are in buildings and you don't know they're there."

The 'Incident' system fits into the existing CCTV camera network of a building and is smart enough to be able to differentiate occupants.

"It will identify a building occupant as opposed to a firefighter entering the building and also it can identify mobility impaired persons so they can get a priority for their evacuation," creator Matt Lynch said.

It's hoped the new software from eVisuals will help firefighters from having to solely rely on physical searches to find survivors of multi-storey fires and researchers say it could have been extremely valuable for past tragedies such as the Grenfell fire in London.

The system is in the final stages of development and is expected to be marketed to the owners of large residential and commercial buildings such as shopping centres, nursing homes and universities once completed.