California is Using AI to Spot Wildfires Early

CNN reports:The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection [known as Cal Fire] says it has a new tool to battle wildfires before they explode - artificial intelligence. "I think it is a game changer ... It has enhanced our abilities to validate situational awareness and then respond in a quick fashion," Phillip SeLegue, Cal Fire's staff chief for fire intelligence, told CNN. Deep in the California wilderness of the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County, a fire started in the middle of a July night. No fire officials were in the area, but AI was watching and alerted the authorities. "The dispatch center there was not aware of the fire," said Scott Slumpff, battalion chief of the intel program at Cal Fire, who was testing the new technology at the time and received the initial alert. Cal Fire, in partnership with the University of California at San Diego's Alert California program and its network of more than 1,000 cameras across the state, is using the technology to spot fires early. "The camera had done its 360 [degree turn], identified an anomaly, stopped and was zoomed in," Slumpff explained. He then confirmed it was a fire and immediately dispatched resources. "They were able to hold it to a 10 by 10 [foot] spot out in the middle of the forest..." The pilot program was so successful, Cal Fire expanded the technology at the beginning of September to all 21 of its dispatch centers across the state... Cal Fire says 40% of fires since July 10 have been detected by AI before a 911 call was received - and the technology is continuing to learn and improve. "We have multiple successes of fires at night that had gone undetected that we were able to suppress before a 911 call had even come into the command centers," Cal Fire's staff chief for fire intelligence, told CNN. "The fires you don't hear about in the news is the greatest success."

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