You don’t put out a wildfire with water and flame retardants like you do a burning house. You contain it and wait for it to burn itself out. So spotting and controlling a fire as fast as possible are key to limiting its damage.
Washington state leaders are trying to expedite their response to wildland blazes by putting virtual eyes in the forest. The state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) this spring announced a pilot project with Pano AI, a startup offering high-definition cameras and software. They’re deploying the technology this summer.
The pilot includes installing 21 of the company’s 360-degree cameras on a patch of state trust lands on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. It’s an area that has lacked good fire detection capabilities, officials said. The traditional approach to finding fires has been 911 calls and aerial surveys.
Pano AI’s system monitors the landscape around the clock, using AI-powered software to review the camera footage, and sending an alert if a fire is discovered and verified.
George Geissler, Washington’s state forester
“As soon as the system is in place, we’re hoping it starts helping immediately.”
“As soon as the system is in place, we’re hoping it starts helping immediately,” said George Geissler, Washington’s state forester and DNR’s deputy supervisor for wildfire operations.
Pano AI charges customers about $50,000 per camera per year. The deal with DNR is slightly cheaper at roughly $45,000 per site, costing the state $948,000.
With climate change and hotter temperatures, the world is seeing record-setting blazes again in 2023. Canada has burned an area of forest larger than Iceland. In Washington, hundreds of wildfires have sparked. Wildfires in Maui this week are forcing evacuations in a historic town.
At the same time, wildfire experts say there’s a labor shortage in the field, which requires dangerous, physical and messy work.
Now there’s hope that Pano AI and other technologies flooding the wildfire realm can help prevent and limit wildfire damage.
DNR is in discussion with established corporations and startups to explore solutions. That includes Google, which has promoted wildfire detection tools that are integrated into Google Maps, and Lockheed Martin, the defense industry juggernaut that is applying satellite tech to the wildfire space. Startup Data Blanket is talking with DNR regarding its AI-based drone system for surveying fires to map their perimeters and helping marshal resources. The Seattle company is doing demos with local fire departments.
“It’s a significant effort being made at the federal, state and local level to incorporate a lot more technology,” Geissler said. “It’s the most cost effective way to do this.”
In addition to these efforts, an international XPrize launched in April and has so far raised an $11 million purse. The four-year contest aims “to innovate firefighting technologies that will end destructive wildfires.”
San Franciso-based Pano AI launched in 2020 and has raised $45 million from investors, according to PitchBook. The company’s customers include power utilities such as PacifiCorp and Xcel Energy, private landowners and government fire agencies.
This summer when a blaze started in Oregon’s Yamhill County, Pano AI was able to alert firefighters 14 minutes ahead of the first 911 call, according to TechCrunch.
Washington state doesn’t know what combination of mounted cameras, drones and satellites will give the best results for spotting and surveying fires. The Pano AI approach would require about 300 of the cameras to cover state lands at risk of burning, Geissler said.
It’s a striking change from where the field once was. Geissler, who started fighting fires as an 18-year old in Idaho some three decades ago, recalled that “for us, technology was when one person on a 20-man crew had a radio.”
Geissler said that protecting firefighters’ lives is his paramount concern. His other key considerations include the ability to weave the new technologies into existing wildfire management systems. It’s no small task considering there’s coordination between nine federal agencies and all of the states. He worries that at some point there will be too much information funneled to firefighters in command and in the field, making their jobs harder instead of easier.
Pano AI’s CEO Sonia Kastner asserts that the technology will help.
“Our wildfire intelligence solution combines ultra-high-definition cameras, satellites, 5G, AI, and an easy-to-use software interface, all with the goal of making firefighting safer and more effective in the face of increasingly destructive climate-related threats,” said Kastner in a statement announcing the pilot.
Editor’s note: Updated to correct the year Pano AI launched.
