Megabucks up for grabs for megafires solution

A cool $A16 million is up for grabs in a global competition aiming to prevent megafires like those that have ravaged Australia.

And NSW's Rural Fire Service will play a critical role in determining who wins the cash and glory.

Australians might be familiar with the XPRIZE Foundation, which hosts lucrative public competitions to find solutions to some of humanity's biggest problems.

Billionaire Elon Musk, for example, is funding a $US100 million XPRIZE competition to find ways to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or ocean.

The bushfire challenge is next off the rank, with a large chunk of the $A16 million put up by Australia's philanthropic Minderoo Foundation.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Rob Rogers is helping launch the competition in Sydney on Saturday and says the bar is high. But it needs to be, with climate change fuelling more frequent and intense fires.

Individuals or teams from anywhere in the world are being asked to work on two complementary solutions to transform how fires are detected, managed and fought.

The first is to develop a space-based fire detection and intelligence system.

Teams must show they can - within one minute - accurately detect all fires across a landscape larger than entire states or countries.

And within 10 minutes they must be able to precisely characterise and report data to two ground stations, with the least number of false positives.

The second challenge is to develop an autonomous firefighting solution.

Teams will have 10 minutes to autonomously detect and suppress a high-risk fire in an environmentally challenging area covering 1000 sq km leaving any decoy fires untouched.

Mr Rogers reckons it will be revolutionary if those solutions can be found.

"We've got a lot of resources to respond quickly but that relies on us detecting fires early," he said.

He admits that's a struggle as things stand.

"Something like this would be a game changer."

If anyone understands how quickly fires can move it's Adrian Turner, who leads Minderoo's fire resilience work.

He came close to losing his life when three fire fronts converged near his brother's property in NSW's Kangaroo Valley in January, 2020.

He and his two brothers were among six people who battled the fire for six and a half terrifying hours, with three others also taking refuge on the site.

"We were aware there were fires burning in the area, obviously. The fire was two gullies, two valleys over about 24 hours before it hit us. But then the wind changed.

"By the time we realised the scale of what we were facing ... there was no way out."

Mr Turner is convinced things could easily have gone the other way.

Like if they hadn't managed to extinguish the fire that got into the garage, where fuel and quad bikes were stored. Or if the panes of high-specification glass, made to deal with fire, had blown in. 

He can still remember watching the glass "wobble like something from The Matrix".

Three days after the fire, the cybersecurity expert joined Minderoo's program to boost the nation's fire resilience.

He hopes the prize money the foundation is contributing to will mobilise efforts to fight fires in a smarter way and reduce risks for volunteers.

"State of the art right now - unless there is aerial support - is sending someone down a fire trail in a four-wheel drive with iPhone to take a photo of the perimeter of the fire.

"If we can help them figure out what are the dangerous fires, help them (direct) their resources and people, and be more effective because they've got better intelligence, that's going to be a good thing."

It's hoped semi-finalists will be selected by about July next year. The NSW RFS will then help tests their solutions.