New wildfire detection camera installed on Pole Mountain, Sonoma Coast's highest peak
The scene shifts every 15 seconds on a large computer screen at REDCOM’s emergency dispatch hub in Santa Rosa, displaying a 360-degree view of the coastal hills from the highest point on the Sonoma Coast.
The images come courtesy of a newly all-hours camera atop Pole Mountain, site of a longtime fire lookout used for decades to spot wildfires in some of Sonoma County’s most remote locations.
Only now, instead of a person armed with a spotting scope and radio, the first indication of a fire in the area may well be transmitted by the new camera - the only one in the county that automatically rotates on its axis, providing full coverage of the coastal hills in 30-degree arcs.
Part of a growing network of wildfire detection cameras deployed around the North Bay and the state, the newest addition is representative of continuing investments in state-of-the-art technology deemed key to defending the West against increasingly frequent, more destructive wildfires.
It expands on technological capabilities that fire officials say already have aided in the discovery, location and assessment of wildfires since such equipment began proliferating several years ago.
“It’s a great tool for all of us,” Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman said. “It’s one of the better things that’s happened out here in a long time.”
Sonoma County now has 12 cameras at 13 sites, a small fraction of the 220 or so already installed around California, with scores more still on the drawing board amid ongoing efforts by Cal Fire and PG&E to address growing wildfire risk.
Several other cameras are located right at the eastern edge of the county but provide moment-to-moment pictures of territory inside county lines. The images are made public at ALERTWildfire.org.
All the cameras provide high-definition and near-infrared capability that can capture images at night, and allow authorized users, including REDCOM and CalFire personnel, to log in and manipulate the cameras, zooming in or manually rotating those that don’t move automatically so they can better see and locate smoke plumes.
What’s missing are the people or even artificial intelligence units dedicated to monitoring the images sent by the cameras around the clock during the most fire-prone parts of the year.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Ben Nicholls said he’s aware of a rising number of civilians and retired and off-duty firefighters who regularly check out the camera feed to see what’s going on around them, just out of personal interest.
At this point, he said, a fire is still most likely to be reported by someone who sees the smoke or flames firsthand. But the cameras play an important role in helping officials understand where it’s burning, how it might behave and how it might best be attacked.
University of Nevada, Reno geophysicist Graham Kent originally developed the high-definition, pan-tilt-zoom cameras and communication links that form the foundation of ALERTWildfire, formed by a consortium of three universities: UNR, UC San Diego and the University of Oregon.
The group, which launched its work in the Lake Tahoe, San Diego and Orange County areas, has about 270 cameras installed across five western states. Almost 200 were installed just this year, Kent said.
Though it’s exhausting work at the pace they’re going, the quickly expanding network of private and public partners makes it as thrilling, he said.
“It’s probably 2- or 3,000 people pushing in the same direction,” said Kent, director of the Nevada Seismology Lab. “That’s really cool. … It’s not a political thing. It’s not a blue or red thing. Everybody gets it, so we’re grateful that we’re getting a lot of help. We need it.”
The cameras are a part of a new emphasis on technology embraced by Gov. Gavin Newsom and others in the effort to address growing wildfire risks. They also invite the public to play an active role in fire detection.
In Orange County, for instance, over 100 volunteers already are on the rolls, ready and willing to monitor camera feeds during high-fire conditions so fire crews are given notice at the first sign of smoke, Kent said.
Early warnings mean smarter deployment of resources, more timely evacuations and more likely suppression of wildfires before they get out of control.
The camera feeds allowed Baxman to monitor a recent July 13 fire in the Shiloh Estates near the Mark West Creek area between Windsor and Santa Rosa and see that crews quickly knocked down a 2.6-acre brush fire that ignited in a rugged canyon in hot, dry conditions.
“Any time I hear a smoke check anywhere in the county, I can just go to the computer, pull it up and look,” he said.
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