Early discovery tools help but cannot stop every fire in the forests

A little later 6:25 am on November 8, 2018, 911 sender received the first report on a fire near the Bo Dam in North California. After nineteen minutes, firefighters discovered what will be known as the name Camp fire. Drought dried up the plants in the area, and the strong winds were blowing in the direction of Paradise, which is a town 10 miles to the southeast. “This has happened to a major accident,” the fire chief said McKenzi McKinsey to the accident.

An hour later, hot embers are rained on the southern side of heaven, which sparked stain fires before the main front. Within 40 minutes of setting the first spot fires, the main fire front arrived in the city. The camp fire will continue in the burn for two weeks, which destroys Paradise and kills 85 people. It is, along with the recent Los Angeles fires, one of the most compassions forest fires In our history.

The speed and destruction of modern forest fires focused on early attention – the hope that a fire will hunt shortly after its ignition will give the firefighting sets enough time to hide it before it cannot be controlled. All cameras, satellites and sensors installed on trees are described as ways to determine fire when they start, but firefighters warn that early detection has its limits-and that in some cases no amount of early detection can prevent the worst fires from burning from the outside control.

Marcus Hernandez, deputy head of the Research and Development Department in the field of fire technology in California, says, as was the case with the camp fire, 911 calls are still the majority of the first discoveries. Cal Fire also uses alertcalifornia, a network of more than 1,144 high -resolution cameras throughout the state you can see up to 60 miles per day and 120 miles at night. The camera of the University of California is located in San Diego and is monitored by firefighters in leadership and control centers throughout the state.

In mid -2013, Alertcalifornia added the ability to automatically discover smoke columns from camera shots using artificial intelligence. “Just a circumstantial awareness that comes from those cameras with a strategic location was already a benefit before the giant leap forward related to the detection of abnormal intelligence,” says Hernandez. Cal Fire also uses a system called FireGuard that uses military satellites to detect heat from forest fires. “This puts us on alert to verify our other tools to see if there is a fire or not. We will send automatically.”

Dryad Networks, a start -up company based in Germany, wants to improve the detection of early fires by installing trees with remote sensors that can detect wild smoke. “It is a solar -cost low -cost gas sensor, such as electronic nose. Carsten Brinkcholt, founder and CEO of the company says:

According to Brinkschulte, each device costs about $ 104 and can protect about a hectare of forests. California alone has about 13 million hectares From Forest, but Brinkchlet says his company wants to focus on the smaller and high -risk areas where forest fires are likely to start. The areas of attention to Dryad include near train lines, roads, long -distance walking paths and power generation, which have been linked to more From 3600 fires in California Since 1992, including the camp fire.