FlameWatch: Predicting Wildfires Before They Ignite

Inspiration: When Minutes Matter

I still remember that day in June. The sky turned an eerie orange as smoke from a distant wildfire rolled over our town. My neighbor Sarah had just 15 minutes to grab her family photos and evacuate. By evening, her home of 30 years was gone.

That memory haunted me. In 2025 alone, millions of acres across the U.S., Canada, and Greece have burned—destroying homes, forcing wildlife from habitats, and devastating entire ecosystems. The question kept nagging at me: with all our satellite technology, why can’t we see these disasters coming sooner?

That question sparked FlameWatch. What if we could build something that doesn’t just monitor wildfires but actually predicts them—before they even begin? What if Sarah had days of warning instead of minutes? What if communities had time to prepare, protect, and prevent?

What FlameWatch Does: Putting Safety Back in People’s Hands

FlameWatch is an AI-powered wildfire prediction system that gives communities back what fires often take away: control, time, and safety.

The system analyzes real-time and historical data from trusted sources like NASA FIRMS, POWER, and WMS to calculate wildfire likelihood for any location. Users see live risk scores on an interactive map, with instant alerts when danger levels rise. We’ve designed it for everyone—from fire departments to families—by adding a voice assistant using ElevenLabs and a video chatbot with Tavus, ensuring even non-technical users understand what’s happening and what actions to take.

When a region turns red on our map, it’s not just a warning—it’s precious time. Time to clear brush around homes. Time to prepare evacuation routes. Time to save what matters most.

How We Built It: From Idea to Reality with Bolt.new

We had the vision, but turning it into reality seemed overwhelming—until we discovered Bolt.new. This platform became our secret weapon, transforming what would have been months of development into just days.

With Bolt’s visual development environment, we built our full-stack application with unprecedented speed. Our backend, powered by Django, handles the complex data collection and AI predictions. At the heart of FlameWatch is our custom-trained Random Forest classifier, built on real wildfire history and environmental patterns.

We deployed the frontend through Netlify and secured our custom domain—flamewatch.earth—via IONOS (through Entri). Tavus powers our video AI, while ElevenLabs brings the human voice that makes critical information accessible to everyone.

Without Bolt.new, FlameWatch might still be just an idea on a whiteboard. Their platform gave us the speed, flexibility, and integration support that turned our vision into a working tool that could save lives.

Challenges: Finding Clarity in Chaos

Building FlameWatch wasn’t without its struggles. Cleaning and merging large NASA datasets proved far more complex than we anticipated—satellite data is notoriously inconsistent, and we spent sleepless nights making sense of conflicting information.

Designing a real-time risk visualization system required careful optimization. Early versions crashed when processing large regions, forcing us to rethink our approach to data handling.

Integrating multiple external services (Tavus, ElevenLabs, Supabase) into one seamless experience took countless iterations. Each time we thought we’d solved one integration, another would break.

The hackathon timeline added intense pressure, but Bolt’s platform kept us grounded. When we hit roadblocks, their visual development environment let us quickly test alternatives without starting from scratch.

Accomplishments: From Concept to Community Shield

In just 30 days, we built something we’re genuinely proud of—a fully functional, beautiful wildfire prediction tool that could change how communities prepare for disasters.

We integrated advanced AI features that anyone can use, regardless of technical background. The voice assistant guides users through risk assessments in plain language, while the interactive map makes complex data instantly understandable.

Perhaps most importantly, we’ve made FlameWatch open-source, allowing others to build upon our work. This isn’t just our project anymore—it belongs to every community threatened by wildfires.

What We Learned: Technology with Heart

This journey taught us that satellite and climate data holds enormous untapped potential—if processed thoughtfully. We discovered that Bolt.new makes building and scaling full-stack applications faster than we ever imagined possible.

We learned that combining tools like Tavus and ElevenLabs creates a more human-centered experience, making critical information accessible to everyone, not just those with technical knowledge.

Most importantly, we realized that technology can tell powerful stories—ones that make people care, understand, and act. When data becomes personal—when it shows the fire risk to your neighborhood, your school, your home—it transforms from abstract numbers into actionable insights.

What’s Next: Beyond the Horizon

FlameWatch began as a Bolt project, but we believe it can become much more. Our roadmap includes:

Enhancing our prediction model with deeper temporal forecasting and weather simulations
Collaborating with local authorities and climate agencies for real-world deployment
Launching multilingual support to serve diverse communities worldwide
Extending the platform to predict other disasters—floods, heatwaves, droughts

With the right support, FlameWatch could become more than a hackathon project—it could be a vital safety tool for people, ecosystems, and our planet.

The memory of that orange sky and my neighbor’s lost home drives us forward. Because next time, with enough warning, maybe the story ends differently.

Why FlameWatch Deserves Recognition

FlameWatch embodies the spirit of this hackathon across multiple prize categories:

As a Uniquely Useful Tool, it transforms complex satellite data into actionable safety information for communities at risk.

Our Creative Use of AI combines prediction algorithms with voice and video interfaces to make critical information accessible to everyone.

The Beautiful UI of our interactive map turns complex risk assessments into intuitive visual information anyone can understand.

With its open-source approach and community focus, FlameWatch has Viral Potential to spread from community to community as wildfire seasons intensify.

As climate change increases wildfire frequency, FlameWatch addresses a growing global need with Sharp Problem Fit and Future Unicorn potential.

Our Build-in-Public Journey demonstrates how platforms like Bolt.new can empower developers to create solutions for urgent real-world problems in record time.

FlameWatch is the tool We Didn’t Know We Needed until wildfires became a year-round threat to communities worldwide.

With its scalable approach and clear market need, FlameWatch is Most Likely to Get Funded as communities and governments seek proactive disaster management solutions.

We built FlameWatch because we believe technology should protect what matters most. With your support, we can help communities see fires coming—before the first spark ignites.