Pyrotown: a serious educational game for Integrated Fire Management students

Pyrotown is a serious game developed as an educational tool for the Master-level course 'Integrated Fire Management' at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). It is a role-playing game (or social simulation) designed to support social learning amongst Master students regarding the challenges that face multi-stakeholder groups and communities that attempt to create an integrated fire management strategy in a complex and changing world. It includes two surprise crisis events that interrupt the game in real time to add new elements and heighten the urgency for decision-making. After playing the game in groups of 5-7 people, the whole class reconvenes for a debriefing discussion. The game takes several hours to play and is usually played over the course of an afternoon to allow for breaks. It does not require any special boards or pieces to play. The moderator only needs to print maps and instructions for the starting scenario and each role.

The imaginary community of Pyrotown (population 40,000) needs an integrated fire management strategy to deal with the increasing fire hazard in and around the town. A group of key stakeholders (known as the Taskforce) has been formed to develop the plan collaboratively. The Taskforce has the following assignment: develop measures and strategies that work to reduce the risk of wildfires for the three neighborhoods of Pyrotown (Forestown, Township, Centre) over the next five years. Develop related risk communication strategies tailored to the different populations and interest groups within Pyrotown. Develop fire management strategies in case Category 1 and/or Category 3 fires may threaten Pyrotown in the near future. According to Tedim et al. (2018), Category 1 fires are low-intensity, slow-spreading wildfires that show no signs of extreme behavior and are easily controlled with standard firefighting efforts, while Category 3 fires have moderate intensity, spread faster, show signs of intensified behavior, and require more coordinated suppression efforts with enhanced firefighting methods and resources to remain manageable[1].

The original version of the game was developed in 2021 at Wageningen University in the Netherlands by Dr. Jasper de Vries and visiting scholar Dr. David Flores of the USDA Forest Service, with support from Dr. Cathelijne Stoof. The intent was to develop an interactive learning tool that allows participants to experience the complex decision-making processes involved in wildland fire management and response. The current version was updated by Michael Cacciapaglia, M.Sc., in 2025.

This project was supported by funding from the EU projects FIRE-RES (European Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 101037419), SEMEDFIRE (Horizon Europe Widening participation and spreading excellence programme, grant agreement No. 101079337), and PyroLife (European Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 860787). The work of Dr. David Flores was supported via fellowship under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems.

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