Abstract: Mine flood is a sudden disaster in coal mine production.In order to effectively prevent mine water inrush accidents, reduce human casualties and property losses in water inrush accidents, an application study of mine water disaster avoidance path planning based on an improved firefly algorithm is proposed.In this paper, aiming at the poor convergence effect of the standard firefly algorithm, falling into a local optimum easily, and combining the characteristics of path planning in a water inrush environment, by changing and designing the initialization method of the firefly algorithm, the distance among fireflies, maximum brightness, relative brightness, etc.The equivalent length considering the disturbance factors of the escape lane is introduced, and the search strategy is adjusted to realize the optimal design of the disaster avoidance path planning.This article compares the improved firefly algorithm with the A* algorithm based on the Wangjialing coal mine example.Simulation results show that the improved firefly algorithm has better convergence and stability, better paths, and the ability to search and optimize in a wide range.It can effectively help trapped people in the roadway from danger when water inrush occurs in the mine.