The Victorian government is backing high-tech fire training.

Virtual reality start-up Flaim Systems has secured $6.7 million in funding to expand its firefighting training technology globally and reduce the billions of dollars spent managing firefighting injuries. 

The investment was led by the Victorian government’s $2 billion investment company Breakthrough Victoria.

Flaim's virtual firefighting training system has been adopted by over 300 emergency services, defence, and training organisations in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. 

Saudi Aramco, the oil and gas giant, is among the companies that have expressed interest in using the VR technology to cut training costs and give employees exposure to tougher scenarios in a safe environment.

“We’re dealing with the first movers who are experimenting with VR technology,” says Simon Miller, chief executive at Flaim. 

“But the reality is you can’t train firefighters as well in the real world. There are obvious health risks, environmental risks that we can give people immediate exposure to.”

The Series A capital injection, which values the virtual firefighting company at $21 million, will enable Flaim to build more training programs for its expanding customer base. 

“Building out that educational platform is where the bulk of this new capital will be spent,” Miller added.

The core technology behind Flaim's system comes from Dr James Mullins, the company's chief technology officer, who is also a volunteer firefighter in Grovedale, Victoria. 

Using a virtual reality headset, workers can interact with challenging physical scenarios such as managing smoke, C02 emissions, and contaminated areas where compliance and risk overlap.

According to the US Fire Administration, the annual cost of firefighter injuries in the US alone is estimated to be between US$1.6 billion and US$5.9 billion, and 14 per cent of all injuries are sustained during training. 

The Flaim team claims that using their system for 2,000 hours of annual training can save the equivalent of 20 million litres of water and 27 tonnes of carbon emissions while avoiding carcinogen exposure.

Flaim Systems' CEO, Simon Miller, joined the company after his initial seed investment and has personally invested around $1 million.