Real-time active wildfire perimeter data from NIFC's IRWIN (Integrated Reporting of Wildland-fire Information) FeatureServer, streamed directly into ATAK and stored in DuckDB. Perimeter growth, containment percentage, and acreage updates appear on the map within minutes of IRWIN publication.
The IRWIN system is the authoritative source for active wildfire perimeters across federal and state agencies in the United States. Tactical AI DuckDB connects directly to the IRWIN Active Fires FeatureServer REST endpoint, polls on a configurable interval, and upserts the latest perimeter data into the nifc_fire_perimeters DuckDB table.
An Incident Commander on a Type 1 incident opens their ATAK device and immediately sees current fire perimeter boundaries, containment percentages, and acreage for all fires within 200km. When the IRWIN perimeter grows overnight, the next polling cycle automatically updates the map and fires a proactive alert to all ATAK clients.
The plugin polls the NIFC/IRWIN Active Fires FeatureServer (ArcGIS Online) and stores perimeter data in DuckDB for spatial analysis, alert rule evaluation, and NIEM export. Each fire record includes geometry, acreage, containment, incident type, and managing agency.
Polling frequency is configurable from as frequent as 5 minutes to as infrequent as 60+ minutes depending on operational tempo and network bandwidth. During active suppression operations, frequent polling keeps the tactical picture current. During pre-season planning, daily updates are sufficient.
| Scenario | Recommended Interval | Bandwidth Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Active Suppression (Type 1/2) | 15 minutes | Low (<500KB/poll) |
| Monitoring / Watch Duty | 30 minutes | Very low |
| National Overview | 60+ minutes | Minimal |
| Pre-Attack Planning | On-demand (refresh) | Single fetch |
IRWIN perimeter data can optionally be written back to an agency's own ArcGIS Enterprise or Online portal via the PortalSyncService edit queue. This allows organizations to maintain a local authoritative copy of fire perimeter data within their enterprise GIS, even for network segments that cannot reach IRWIN directly.
fire_perimetersThe fire_perimeters agent tool lets operators query and refresh fire data through natural language. The AI can filter fires by state, retrieve details for a specific fire by IRWIN ID, or force an immediate refresh from the IRWIN endpoint.