Portuguese Firefighting AI Platform SIION Enters Testing Phase

en.Wedoany.com Reported - The firefighting AI decision-support platform SIION, developed by a Portuguese startup team, has entered its testing phase. Created by João Santos, the platform is described by his team as a "firefighting super model," providing fire commanders with near-real-time resource deployment recommendations based on multi-source data analysis.

SIION's core function is to recommend specific deployment locations for firefighting resources by cross-referencing multiple types of information, including weather, soil, and fire behavior. In an interview with Lusa News Agency, João Santos stated that the tool can compress the decision-making process in an extremely short time, predicting fire progression with a certain level of confidence—essentially acting as a "GPS" for fire commanders. He emphasized that, while this process is not strictly real-time analysis, it is close to real-time, with processing speeds far exceeding the limits of human judgment.

Unlike existing fire behavior prediction systems, SIION not only forecasts fire spread but also provides specific recommendations on "which resources should be deployed where." In situations where resources are scarce, the system can be used to enhance the operational efficiency of individual resources, anticipate high-risk zones for firefighters, and match the most suitable resource types for the current fire conditions. Santos also noted that the platform helps mitigate the impact of fatigue accumulated over days of continuous operations on firefighters' decision-making abilities.

SIION recently secured second place in the national finals of ClimateLaunchpad, a sustainable business idea competition held at the University of Porto Science and Technology Park (UPTEC). Santos believes this ranking indicates that there is "a certain demand" for such solutions in the firefighting sector. The platform is currently being tested in corporate environments, and its creators expect its coverage to expand to more companies and regions between late 2025 and early 2027. The overall winner of this edition of the competition was Latent Energy Systems, a company developing thermal energy storage solutions for industrial heat decarbonization, which will represent Portugal in the global finals.

João Santos, 41, comes from a family of firefighters in Lisbon, holds a background in forestry engineering, and earned a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science from the University of Liverpool in June of this year.