Cameras Vie With Human Lookouts To Detect Fires In National Forests

By Melissa Sevigny
Published: Thursday, June 30, 2016 - 9:01am
Updated: Thursday, June 30, 2016 - 9:13am
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(Photo courtesy of Bridger-Teton National Forest)
A webcam shot of the Smokehouse Fire.
(Photo by Melissa Sevigny - KNAU)
Maggie Roberts demonstrates how she answers a call at the Coconino National Forest dispatch center in Flagstaff.

Forest managers nationwide are starting to watch for wildfires with high-tech cameras, sometimes installed on mountaintops where human lookouts have historically kept watch. Arizona hasn’t yet adopted this technology. When it does, a fire lookout’s job could be made easier — or obsolete.

An incoming call lights up a computer screen at the U.S. Forest Service dispatch center in Flagstaff. Maggie Roberts hits a button to reply to field crews.

Behind her are giant maps of the Coconino National Forest. One shows fire lookout towers. Another has magnets for every fire engine and crew member.  

“As they move and change locations we change the magnet, that way we know where people are,” Roberts said.

“It’s kind of an old-school way of doing things," said Jeff Walther, dispatch center manager.

Walther wants the Coconino National Forest to modernize its firefighting technology. Some national forests have recently adopted high-tech fire-spotting cameras.

“They make cameras nowadays that you can get range finders on them, heat — infrared — detection,” Walther said. “They’re pretty amazing.”

Walther points to a pilot program at the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. The Forest Service there has deployed six cameras to spot and monitor wildfires.

“So instead of having to fly a helicopter out into the wilderness area to monitor a fire, or put two individuals out in grizzly bear country to monitor that fire, we can do it with a camera," said Michael Johnston, the project leader. 

Johnston explains it’s about reducing risk. Cameras let firefighters check out the scene before going in themselves. And they’re cheaper than keeping lookouts on the payroll. Some camera systems, Johnston said, “actually automatically detect the smoke through the software on the camera, and one dispatcher could be monitoring 10 or 20 cameras.

That’s what’s happening in southern Oregon, where a network of nearly 40 cameras has replaced human fire lookouts. Some of those cameras use infrared to detect fires people can’t see.

There are a lot of benefits, Johnston said, but: “It’s a big change for the Forest Service. I think the lookouts are kind of the national symbol for the Forest Service.”  

Andrew Hostad is a fire prevention officer for the Coconino National Forest. He pulls off the dirt road he’s patrolling to look at his iPad. It’s got electronic versions of the maps in the Dispatch Center. He can pinpoint the locations of fires and find the quickest route there.

Hostad points out the smoke rising from the Cowboy Fire, burning south of Flagstaff. A nearby lookout called in the smoke. Hostad admits a camera could spot smoke just as well, but he doesn’t think technology can replace actual human lookouts.  

“They’re a lot more than just our eyes and ears for detecting wildfires,” Hostad says. “They let us know where people are camping at and potential things to watch out for.”

Hostad says lookouts pass on vital information — about a big storm rolling in, for example, or a group of campers near a lightning strike. They also act as relays for fire crews on the ground, especially in rough terrain where radio communication is difficult.

“That’s one thing where — you can’t talk to a camera,” he says.

And Hostad points to the symbolic value of lookouts. When hikers make it to mountaintops with historic lookout towers, he says, they want to find a person there.

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