Washington state officials are now streaming surveillance camera feeds from 21 locations, allowing the public to remotely monitor for Pacific Northwest wildfires in real-time.
Forecasters say there’s an above-average risk for fires in the region this summer due to lower-than-normal precipitation earlier in the year and projections for higher temperatures.
While the artificial intelligence deployed by San Francisco startup Pano AI will almost certainly spot blazes first, people can scan the rotating 360-degree camera feeds to get a visual sense of air quality and potentially watch fires as they develop.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources launched a pilot program with Pano AI in 2023, placing cameras at sites where wildfire risk is high and the chances of a person reporting it are lower, based on historical data and models. Five more cameras are scheduled to come online this year.
“When Pano AI approached us with a new publicly accessible camera feed feature, it was an easy yes,” said George Geissler, DNR’s state forester and deputy supervisor responsible for wildland fire management, in a statement.
“Early detection is a key part of DNR’s wildfire rapid response model,” he added, “and now Washingtonians can peek behind the scenes at how part of that detection process works.”
Last year, Pano AI’s technology found an undiscovered fire in Mason County, alerting fire departments who were able to put the fire out in hours, limiting the burn to less than 20 acres.
DNR has a contract with Pano AI through 2029.
Other wildfire and smoke-related information is available from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (NWCC), Washington Smoke Blog, which is run by government agencies and Tribes; PurpleAir; and the Washington State Department of Ecology’s air quality map.
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