Firefighters working the Parker Lake wildfire, designated G90267 by the BC Wildfire Service, in a staging area along Highway 97 looking south with a water bladder and fire hose set up among charred grassland on May 15.HO/The Canadian Press
On April 24, forest rangers powered up two high-tech cameras mounted on Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T cellphone towers in the hills above British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley for the first time.
The cameras, which look like fivepin bowling balls, faced their first test on the BC Wildfire Service’s front lines. The rangers needed to know if the 360-degree, high-definition lens could deliver on claims to spot fires up 24 kilometres away, and if an artificial intelligence system could actually distinguish ribbons of smoke from mountain mist and clouds.
Within hours, the pilot project proved its merit: One of the cameras spotted a blaze and automatically notified crews, who were on the way to the site 16 minutes before any of the wildfire service’s other networks picked up on the fire.
Over the next two weeks, AI-enhanced cameras detected more than two dozen outbreaks in a region devastated last summer by fires that took out neighbourhoods in Kelowna and nearby communities, triggering $720-million in insurance claims.
For Rogers and its partners – the government-run wildfire service and researchers at the University of British Columbia – initial success on the camera project means another tool in a tech tool box needed for dealing with fires and the impact of climate change.
“We’re finding cameras have an important role in wildfire detection in places where response times are critical, such as forests near densely populated areas,” said Mathieu Bourbonnais, assistant professor in the earth, environmental and geographic sciences department at University of British Columbia’s Kelowna campus.
For the past three years, UBC has also been working with Rogers on a project that uses sensors in forests to feed data on moisture levels into an AI system designed to predict fire risk. Dr. Bourbonnais, a former firefighter, said: “An enormous amount of tech is now being dedicated to wildfires.”
B.C. will spend roughly $1-billion fighting wildfires this year, according to Dr. Bourbonnais. In a sign of how much attention wildfires command, UBC now offers a three-course program called “fundamentals of wildland fire ecology and management.”
Controlling wildfires will always come down to firefighters armed with hoses, shovels and axes heading into forests. If technology such as AI-enhanced cameras, along with drones and satellites, can get those crews deployed faster, small outbreaks become far less likely to grow into infernos.
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“Detecting wildfires early is critical for success, and BC Wildfire remains at the forefront of investigating advanced detection methods to understand their applicability,” said Aaron Pawlick, manager of strategic initiatives and innovation at the BC Wildfire Service, in an e-mail on Friday. He said the cameras are a “valuable supplement to our existing detection processes,” which also includes citizens calling in fire sightings.
“As technology progresses, detection based on remote sensing platforms such as remotely piloted aircraft systems and satellites will play a larger role in our processes,” said Mr. Pawlick.
Early results from the camera project in the Okanogan, and other regions setting up AI-linked cameras, show the technology significantly improves firefighters’ response times. In the next few weeks, Rogers will set up cameras in three more B.C. sites – Salmon Valley, Prince George and Okanagan Mountain.
San Francisco-based Pano makes the cameras and software hanging off Rogers’ towers. The four-year-old company got its start supplying wildfire services in Colorado and Washington state.
“We’re excited about the potential of this partnership and the opportunity it presents to help mitigate wildfire risk in B.C. and safeguard communities,” said Arvind Satyam, Pano’s co-founder and chief commercial officer in an e-mail. He said: “We aim to lay the groundwork for expansion and long-term success across the province.”
As the network expands and collects more data, Mr. Satyam said the system gets better at spotting smoke by day and heat signatures at night, and lowering the number of false alarms.
Pano charges approximately US$50,000 annually for each station on a network, and each station consists of two cameras. Rogers is paying the bill, along with the cost of connecting the cameras to its network and SpaceX satellites and supplying firefighters with satellite phones.
“We invested in wildfire detection technology that, combined with Rogers 5G and satellite technology, will protect communities from the devastating impact of climate change,” said Tony Staffieri, chief executive officer at Rogers, at the company’s recent annual meeting. “This is not a revenue driver for Rogers, it’s just the right thing to do.”
Rogers is committing resources to fighting wildfires and helping communities cope with climate change at a time when the Toronto-based telecom company is also vying for customers in Western Canada against Vancouver-based Telus Corp. Rogers dramatically scaled up operations in B.C. and Alberta last year by acquiring the region’s largest cable company – Shaw Communications Inc. – for $20-billion.