Development of BIM, IoT and AR/VR technologies for fire safety and upskilling

High-rise building fires can pose a significant threat to occupants and firefighters. The state-of-the-art technologies such as sensor-based Internet of Things (IoT), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) may offer great potential to improve building fire safety and rescue efficiency, primarily through ameliorating the level of situational awareness. This study proposes an innovative technology integrated framework for prototyping a proof-of-concept BIM, IoT and AR/VR system based upon the rationale of situational awareness. A pilot test based on a simulated fire scenario is conducted to evaluate the functionality of the framework. The outcomes reveal that the data generated by the system can be leveraged by the firefighting department to quickly locate the whereabouts of the indoor fires, and the VR gamification scenarios can expedite the development of situational awareness for the trainees. The limitations and future works are also discussed at the end of this paper. •Integrating Building Information Modelling and Internet of Things can provide fire monitoring.•Virtual Reality based fire training can increase situational awareness.•Augmented Reality can facilitate indoor pathfinding efficiency.•Firefighters' efficiency can be improved through this framework.