Growing camera network aiding quicker wildfire response

24 July 2019

USA – UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO (KOLO) – Graham Kent traces his idea to a very intense personal experience. His family’s home was burned over by a wildfire in the San Diego area in 2003. Information about where the fire was and what it was doing was inaccurate and unreliable.

Six years later, relocated to the Seismological Lab at UNR, he was in a position to act on the idea.

The lab had remote mountain top sites set up to monitor earthquakes, adding a camera could provide real time information about a fire. In 2013 his lone camera on Tahoe’s east side caught this fire burning in the Pine Nut Mountains.

“We had one big camera in 2013. We added a couple more in 2014. Once we started working with BLM out in central Nevada the numbers started to rise.”

The idea grew, slowly at first as cameras were added to other sites here, then in southern California. It caught everyone’s attention in 2017’s Lilac Fire in San Diego County. Images from the cameras prompted a quick, targeted response.

“The cameras provided early intelligence that allowed the Cal Fire chief to know exactly what was happening. He credits the camera network with allowing him to be bold. The Lilac Fire was put down at 4,000 acres. That had the potential of being a multi-billion dollar fire.”

The idea has taken off from there. Today there are 250 or more cameras watching over wild lands in five states. Kent expects there will be a thousand in California, perhaps 200 in Nevada. Many are being placed on existing wireless internet sites, where cameras can be set up on existing towers in a day.

The goal remains the same, quick detection, location and measured response to fires before they grow.

“I think what we want to do is get every ignition before it gets beyond a quarter to a half an acre and then at that point hand it off and provide fire personnel with a safer environment to knock it down.”

24. July 2019/by GFMCadmin