It then prompts a box to be drawn around the area in the camera view, alerting those monitoring the cameras to take a closer look because “this could be something,” said Caitlin Scully, communication program manager for ALERTCalifornia. The Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit covers six counties, including Colusa, Solano and Yolo counties.įed with regional geographical and topographical information supplied by UCSD, the AI-equipped system picks up on aberrations - like new fire starts - in the camera feed. “The AI filters out a significant number of false positives, for example, ruling out dust, fog or haze.Many of the growing number of lookout cameras stationed across California to locate and monitor wildfires will soon be equipped with artificial intelligence technology to speed response to fires and other natural disasters as they first unfold.Ĭal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit is among six regional units testing the new technology this fire season in collaboration with the ALERTCalifornia system run through UC San Diego. Based on the location, we can assess for threat to the public or PG&E facilities,” said Eric Sutphin, Supervisor at PG&E’s WSOC who’s in charge of the camera installations. Our analysts then pinpoint where the smoke is coming from and determine if it’s a car fire, dumpster fire, or even a vegetation fire.
CALIFORNIA FIRE CAMERAS SOFTWARE
“The software analyzes the video feed and if it thinks it sees smoke, we receive an alert via email and text, telling us it just detected smoke.
The quicker the data is received, the more rapidly first responders and PG&E can confirm fires and move the right resources to the right place. The AI test programs includes PG&E determining a way to get the new data to the right people quickly and effectively. The expert staff in the company’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center (WSOC), outside agencies and first responders use the fire-watch cameras to monitor, detect, assess for threats, and respond to wildfires. This is one example of many noted during both pilots confirming the value of early fire detection technology. That smoke ended up becoming the River Fire.
CALIFORNIA FIRE CAMERAS MANUAL
On August 4, 2021, PG&E’s Howell Mountain 1 camera located in Placer County and equipped with Alchera’s AI software, spotted smoke one minute before the actual fire dispatch and several minutes sooner than the manual movement of the camera. The pilot program is already demonstrating the AI’s potential to reduce fire size expansion. “Every bit of data and intelligence that comes to us could potentially save a life.” We are using every new tool and technology at our disposal to improve situational awareness and intelligence to help mitigate and prevent wildfires, including this new AI capability,” said Sumeet Singh, PG&E Chief Risk Officer. “Even with the two significant rainstorms in October and November, we are still in a historic drought and California, along with other western states, continue to experience an increase in wildfire risk and a longer wildfire season. As of October 31, 487 cameras are now in operation, 45 of them are in Lake, Mendocino and Humboldt counties. A similar pilot was conducted with Pano through participation in EPRI’s 2021 Incubatenergy Labs Challenge. PG&E began installing HD cameras in 2018, as part of its Community Wildfire Safety Program. Of those 138 cameras, 46 of them are included in the new AI testing program in partnership with Alchera and ALERTWildfire.
This year, PG&E, in collaboration with ALERTWildfire, has installed 138 new HD cameras across High Fire-Threat Districts, in accordance with its 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
That’s why PG&E is testing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning capabilities in the growing network of high-definition cameras across Northern and Central California to see how it can enhance fire-watch and response capabilities. UKIAH - During extremely dry, hot, and windy weather, being able to differentiate wildfire smoke from fog and other false indicators is invaluable to analysts in Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) Wildfire Safety Operations Center and fire agencies.
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