Joining Forces to Create an Interoperable Network for Early Fire Detection in Oregon
Multiple agencies that use wildfire detection cameras share information and collaborate via the Oregon Wildfire Detection Camera Interoperability Committee.
The Oregon Hazards Lab’s wildfire camera on Quail Prairie Ridge, deployed in summer 2024, provides 360-degree views of the forested Coast Range in Curry County.
Detection cameras in Oregon are located in a variety of landscapes – from high and remote mountaintop sites to deep within the wildland urban interface (WUI) near cities. They fulfill a variety of missions, including keeping an eye out for smoke for early detection, providing vital visual information to fire managers and dispatchers to inform and scale response, ongoing monitoring of fires, public safety and awareness, and compiling data for later forensic investigations. Cameras can be co-located with manned lookouts or other camera systems and often share siting with technologies such as seismic, air quality and other scientific sensors. Staffed detection centers with dedicated ‘camera lookout’ staff, agency and interagency dispatch centers, and private or vendor-provided stations deliver monitoring and response solutions. Automated detection technology is used in all camera systems across the state in some way and can include detection and alerting services.
Any member of the public can visit alertwest.live to view live and timelapse images from wildfire cameras operated by the Oregon Hazards Lab. This video from our camera on Pine Mountain shows the Pine Fire in October 2024.
Introducing the Oregon Wildfire Detection Camera Interoperability Committee
Two years ago, the Governor’s office and federal agencies requested that a work group be formed to establish cooperation between agencies across the state in detection camera efforts. The Oregon Wildfire Detection Camera Interoperability Committee (OWDCIC) was established to bring together partners from agencies that work in structural and wildland fire, emergency management, and the electrical utility sector.
The OWDCIC’s mission is to build relationships, increase interoperability and resilience, ensure cross governmental and cross jurisdictional communications and cooperation, and to identify and implement best practices to achieve interoperable fire tools that support response agencies at a statewide scale. The first group of its kind in the nation, the OWDCIC is now serving as a model for new regional and state interoperability workgroups in the Pacific Northwest. Committee work has resulted in opportunities and accomplishments such as development of a statewide combined detection map GIS layer, annual efficacy reporting, and elimination of conflicts in siting and permitting between agencies. Technologies explored include remote deployable temporary camera towers and the use of alternate data backhaul providers such as StarLink.
The Oregon Hazards Lab is designing and fabricating a suite of mobile deployment units, or portable camera kits that are small and light enough to be transported in a backpack or dropped off by helicopter when a new wildfire sparks in a remote area far from an existing camera site. We first deployed a prototype of this product on Butler Butte in response to the 2023 Anvil Fire.
The OWDCIC has been represented and praised in various venues such as the annual Wildfire Mitigation Plans produced by Oregon’s utility companies, agency annual reports, in media releases from United States Congressional Delegates, presentations in front of Oregon State Legislative Committees, and in social media and other press events.
The OWDCIC’s future focus is to define and establish true interoperability between camera systems regarding technological products and data products. Focus will continue to support the logistics of long-range planning to clear persistent barriers such as securing funding for operations and maintenance and to advance permitting. The committee is committed to examine new technologies as they arise and consider them in relationship to detection services in an effort towards continuous improvement.
Multiple Wildfire Camera Systems Operate in Oregon
This map shows all wildfire cameras in Oregon, including those operated by the Oregon Hazards Lab, the Oregon Department of Forestry, and utilities.
Three camera systems coexist in Oregon. As of July 2024, ODF has 73 EVS ForestWatch camera sites on mountaintop sites being monitored by highly trained staff at five detection centers constantly checking the landscape across southern and eastern Oregon, with an additional 12 planned to be installed by the end of 2025. University of Oregon currently has over 60 ALERTWest camera sites across Oregon that feed to public website display (www.alertwest.live) that also features credential-based access to detections and alerts. The lab will have deployed 75 total cameras by late 2025. Utility partners, as part of their Wildfire Mitigation Plans, have been working hard to provide camera coverage in their service areas. PacifiCorp has five Pano.AI cameras planned to be installed in the FHCA regions by the end of 2025. These sites will overlook PacifiCorp’s electrical infrastructure as well as areas with difficult terrain. Idaho Power is planning to install at least one AI enabled wildfire detection camera in its eastern Idaho Service area through ALERTWest to provide increased situational awareness of wildfire risk zones. Idaho Power will be working with the Oregon Wildfire Detection Camera Interoperability Committee to finalize locations and viewsheds.
“Whether EVS, ALERTWest, or Pano.AI, the technological advances and collaborative effort promoted across Oregon represent an impressive response to the growing wildfire problems in the west. Quick, accurate, and detailed digital information allows fire managers and emergency service providers to make detailed and timely assessments of fire situations and bring the appropriate resources to bear in a more coordinated and effective response. This truly is cutting edge and industry changing technology, and the developing partnerships are invaluable to our corporate success.”
Through the work of the OWDCIC and a commitment to collaboration on technology, policy funding opportunities, and strengthening relationships between the partners utilizing one or more of the three smoke detection camera platforms, agencies are ready for fire season, providing an eye in the sky across the state, from the High Desert to the Cascade Range, from wheat country to dairy country, from the forests to your town.