Alert California: AI To Help Detect Forest Fires

News Desk

Islamabad: Firefighters in the US state of California are using artificial intelligence to detect wildfires as quickly as possible.

According to a report from the news agency Reuters, more than 1,000 cameras have been installed across California, including an AI program that will alert firefighters about fire incidents.

Launched last month, an AI program called ALERTCalifornia spotted a fire that broke out at 3 a.m. local time in the Cleveland National Forest, about 50 miles east of San Diego. When the fire broke out in this forest, it was nighttime and since people were sleeping, no one knew about the fire, and darkness concealed the smoke. If the fire was not brought under control in time, it could have taken terrible shape.

However, the ALERT California detected the fire and alerted the fire captain, who called in about 60 firefighters, including seven fire trucks (engines), two bulldozers, two water tankers and two hand crews.

Due to the quick response of firefighters, the forest fire was successfully brought under control within 45 minutes, according to California’s firefighting agency CalFire.The AI technology was developed by engineers at the University of California, San Diego. They used AI from a California-based company called DigitalPath – a platform designed to help detect events such as fires.

It operates using a network of 1,383 cameras installed by various public organizations and power companies across the state of California. Each of these cameras is capable of capturing a complete view of its surroundings. These cameras are controlled by operators, and anyone sitting in the control centre can adjust the direction of these cameras.

When AI was launched on July 10, Cal Fire demonstrated how AI could quickly alert fire captains to fire incidents before a person calls 911 but until now, it did not yet have a comprehensive report.

University of California Professor and AlertCalifornia Principal Investigator Neil Driscoll said that the data, or samples, that have been collected are too limited and too large to make reliable judgments or conclusions about the program’s results.

CalFire hopes this AI technology will become a model for other US states and around the world, where wildfires in Hawaii, Canada and the Mediterranean have worsened the situation.

Cal Fire Intelligence Expert Suzanne Leininger stated that this technology is 100 per cent applicable anywhere in the world. This technology is very important, especially considering the current situation where the incidence of forest fires is increasing rapidly, she added.

Suzanne Leininger has a role in improving the performance of AI systems by working on recorded videos captured by camera networks. As the AI system identifies fire incidents in these videos based on its programming, Suzanne Leininger’s job is to look at these videos and determine whether the AI is correctly identifying fire incidents.

The aforementioned technology can misidentify fire incidents due to various factors, including black clouds, dust or smoke from trucks, but due to the joint effort of experts, this AI system has been further improved.

In addition to the camera network, the platform is trying to get additional information. These include aerial surveys and ground measurements, the purpose of which is to determine how much vegetation is present in an area where fire is likely to occur, information that helps to understand the risk of fire spreading.

Aircraft and drones will help collect infrared and other wavelength data invisible to the human eye through images.