To challenge the fallacy that “It won’t happen to me”, we’d have to do something shocking. So, for the first time, we put people inside a real house fire.

We took a house, donated to the NZ Fire Service for training purposes, and set about turning it into an immersive VR experience. We dressed the house to look like it was still lived in and set up fire-proofed 360 cameras inside to capture the action. A fire was set using a common scenario; clothes left too close to a heater.

The result was Escape My House, an interactive virtual reality experience that let people step inside a real house fire and see for themselves that, if you’re not ready, you might not make it out alive. We then provided the solution – a mobile-friendly Escape Planner tool, which walked you through your house, room-by-room, to make your family’s escape plan.

In a VR first, people were given the chance to experience a real house fire. The user steps into the lounge to find a small fire has started on a clothing rack, left too close to the heater. What looks manageable is, in fact, already out of control – you have seconds to get out. ??As the fire rampages through the house, obstacles start to hinder your escape. The window is jammed. The front door is deadlocked. If you haven’t planned for this, your home quickly becomes a death trap.

The experience ends with an unexpected twist: a street view of your own house engulfed in flames. And one final haunting thought; you got alive, but did the rest of your family???At the end of the experience you’re invited to use the Escape Planner tool, which walks you through the process of making an escape plan for your family.

The Escape My House project didn’t just challenge the thinking of a nation. It set fire to apathy across the globe. The total number of impressions have so far reached 99 million, with a massive 90% of those (89 million) coming through earned coverage.

But, more importantly, we wanted engagement. We wanted people to step inside the VR experience and see for themselves the terrifying nature of a house fire. Within the first week alone, more than 9 million people took part in the experience and over 20,000 New Zealanders went a step further and made their own escape plan.

Long-held beliefs had been confronted with reality: a fire can happen to you. And if you and your family want to make it out alive, you need a plan. Now… New Zealanders do.