Mobile Deployment Units

The Oregon Hazards Lab manages a rapidly growing network of mountaintop wildfire detection cameras. Deployed at strategic locations across Oregon with 365-degree views of the surrounding landscape, these cameras provide a vital tool to detect and monitor fires while keeping first responders out of harm’s way. But sometimes a wildfire can spark far from the nearest camera, making it hard for firefighters to monitor the blaze. Wildfires can also burn over locations where fixed cameras have been installed, eliminating a vital resource for situational awareness. To help solve this challenge, the Oregon Hazards Lab is designing a new camera kit – or mobile deployment unit – that can be rapidly deployed in response to new ignitions.

In the fall of 2023, the U.S. Forest Service contacted the Oregon Hazards Lab with a request: could we design and fabricate a portable wildfire detection camera that could be hiked into a remote area and deployed in response to a new fire? Our field technicians then created a fully functioning proof-of-concept prototype, which was installed on a rocky ridge called Butler Butte in southwest Oregon to monitor the Anvil Fire.

In response to ongoing demand from public land management agencies, we continued to refine this initial prototype throughout the 2024 field season. Our goal is to create a camera kit that is sufficiently small and lightweight to be hiked into remote areas in a backpack. Each kit would include a camera and lightweight mast tower, a custom lithium-ion battery pack with solar panels, and Starlink connection for telemetry, with no single component weighing more than 50 pounds. This design is simple enough that a crew of two to four firefighters could set it up without direct on-site assistance from Oregon Hazards Lab field technicians. These rapid-response camera kits could be sold to agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management so they have mobile units on-hand to deploy as needed. We intend for this to generate sufficient revenue to become a self-sustaining project.

This project has been supported by the Roundhouse Foundation, which has provided philanthropic contributions to the Oregon Hazards Lab via the UO Foundation. This donation has enabled the Oregon Hazards Lab to upgrade the Butler Butte prototype to an engineered product and build out an initial stock of units to sell or rent to land management agencies during the 2025 field season. The Roundhouse Foundation is dedicated to supporting programs that inspire creativity, connect people with each other and their sense of place, and ensure sustainability for the long-term economic success of Oregon’s rural communities. Learn more about their work at roundhousefoundation.org.