Fire season never ends in Northern Nevada, even in October. Many times, the resources available to fire crews during an emergency can help them get a leg up on the fight, including ALERTWildfire. The camera network places cameras across the Silver State in areas that are generally at a higher risk for fires.
By having live footage of these areas when fires do start, crews know exactly what they're dealing with and how to best fight it.
“We have AI running on these cameras that are trained to spot smoke and light anomalies at night so that we can detect wildfires from these cameras,” said Dr. Bill Savran, Network Manager & Director of ALERTWildfire. “So effectively, they're like fire lookout towers all over the state that once a fire is spotted, firefighters and emergency managers can log on and use these cameras to help them fight the fire.”
ALERTWildfire is part of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory. It was founded in 2013 with only a couple of cameras and has since grown to more than 140 cameras. These cameras have helped provide on the ground information about major wildfires this year, including the Hawk, Bug, and Stallion fires.
The feeds are publicly available for free to anyone and funded by several agencies, including NV Energy. The energy company is on track to fund 70 cameras by the end of this year.
“We can help place these cameras in different places to get a different view, different detection, monitor weather, and it's helped our partners as well,” said Meghan Rodick, Senior Communications Specialist at NV Energy.
These cameras are frequently used in 2 News Nevada Fire coverage as well. Click here to view the feeds.
