The development of AI has led to the technology being used to improve operations and systems. Given that California is among the leading states that have been developing artificial intelligence, it is making use of its expertise to detect wildfires early on for faster response.
AI camera monitoring technology at PG&E Corp.'s Hazard Awareness Warning Center in San Ramon, California, US, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. PG&E has partnered with Digital Path and ALERT California to enable artificial intelligence to process wildfire camera data and provide automated wildfire notifications.
Using AI to Detect Wildfires
Wildfires have been affecting the state of California for years, not only burning vast acres of land but destroying the homes of its residents as well. The firefighters in the area are trying out a new method to keep the fire from getting out of control.
With the help of AI and over 1,000 mountaintop cameras, the program tried to detect fires by identifying smoke. However, the method is still seeing a few issues, particularly the fact that a lot of things can look like smoke and the AI tends to misidentify them.
"You wouldn't believe how many things look like smoke," DigitalPath Chief Architect of the software Ethan Higgins stated. Due to this flaw, engineers from the software company still need to monitor the system all the time.
Detected incidents have to be manually vetted, especially since there have been a lot of false positives. Some of the factors that AI has mislabeled as smoke include fog, haze in the mountains, and even dust from a farmer's tractor, according to The New York Times.
Despite its shortcomings, the program already has records of successful detection. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Staff Chief, Phillip SeLegue says that it has "absolutely improved response times."
He added that there have already been about two dozen cases where the AI system identified fires even before the agency received 911 calls to alert them. Because of the early warning, firefighters were able to put out the fires while they were still small.
The fire agency started using the program back in June and only covers six of Cal Fire's command centers. By September, the program will also be used in 21 other command centers in the state, all while improving its ability to detect smoke accurately.
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California's Second Biggest Wildfire this 2023
A recent wildfire managed to spread across 47,000 acres of land just this Wednesday on the California-Oregon border, which is said to be the second biggest wildfire in the state for this year. More than 1,200 personnel were sent to put out the fire.
According to Forbes, it started on August 15th when a section of the first was struck by lightning around 150 times, which led to over 27 fires.
National Weather Service meteorologist Merl Herlein says that not even the heavy rain from tropical storm Hilary was not enough to make an impact on the fire, much less extinguish it. This resulted in a full evacuation for the small town of Gasquet.
The Del Norte County in California is already at level three with their evacuation order, meaning that they have been urged to leave the area immediately. Josephine County, Oregon is already at level two, which means that they have to be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.
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