Public Safety

Infrared Eye in the Sky Aids Firefighters

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Among the challenges in fighting wildfires is actually seeing the whole blaze.

Even if you go up in a plane, when thick, opaque smoke blankets acres or square miles, it’s nearly impossible to read what the fire’s doing beneath the smoke cover.

But in San Diego County, an experimental system that uses an infrared video camera mounted underneath a firefighting plane has been a keen eye in the sky that peers straight through smoke. The heat sensing camera develops a sharp image of wildfire that shows where flames are growing, spreading, or dying down. A streaming video link and remote control allows fire managers on the ground to point the camera and direct water drops or the overall firefighting effort.

The prototype system installed in 2009 –the first of its kind in the U.S. to be used for civilian firefighting—has has been an experimental program in a partnership between CAL FIRE and the Lincoln Labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors voted to upgrade the prototype camera with a more reliable model and to expand the system to become a permanent part of San Diego County’s firefighting capability.

 “The Airborne Video Camera System has shown us the potential of this new technology,” said Board Chairman Ron Roberts. “Incorporating an upgraded camera as a part of our Next Generation Incident Command System will improve firefighting, protect property and help save lives.” 

The Next Generation Incident Command System—or NICS—is a Web-based system that uses mapping and communications technology to create a real-time picture of an emergency. Locally, CAL FIRE and the County Fire Authority are using NICS to help manage their response during fires, and Roberts has helped head the technology’s adoption and plans for its expanded use.

The Board action Tuesday authorized County staff to negotiate a contract to upgrade the infrared camera and video link system, which is expected to cost about $198,000. Roberts noted that the new camera should be in place by October, a month that saw devastating 2003 and 2007 wildfires amid Santa Ana winds and scorching heat.

When the upgrade is complete, the Airborne Video Camera System will send high quality, real-time video to fire managers on the ground, who will also be able to point and control the camera and use the video images to make critical firefighting decisions.

“The capability pushes this way beyond what we’ve been able to do in the past,” CAL FIRE’s San Diego Unit Chief and County Fire Authority Chief Thom Porter told the Board Tuesday.

A short informational video on the test system’s capability shows its effectiveness in guiding water and fire retardant drops in an actual blaze. In the video, a bright white area marks the edge of a fire blazing on the ground beneath the AA330 CAL FIRE airplane. After a retardant drop, the white in the image turns black—meaning the hot area has been cooled, the flames extinguished. But as the aircraft works to contain the blaze within a wet, cool perimeter of retardant, the camera reveals a bright white spot breaking up the dark ring. In other words, the drops have missed a spot.

The infrared imagery allows fire managers to order another drop to complete the perimeter, perhaps making a critical difference in containing a burn that might have had an outlet.

Also critical—the camera reveals fire areas and hot spots that might not be otherwise obvious. The information keeps firefighters out of danger.

The system will be expanded in phases, with the new camera and three video downlink and control systems for battalion chiefs on the ground expected to be in place before October.

The system is designed to ultimately connect many users to the video, so that multiple fire managers, can access real-time video of a wildfire. In future plans, first responders, County Office of Emergency Services staff, policy makers and other   stakeholders could all view the color and infrared video over an internet portal.

 To make that happen, plans for the infrared and video system call for outfitting a CAL FIRE’s mobile command vehicle with a video downlink and control system and adding a mobile relay station to enhance the network connectivity of the vehicle, even in remote areas.