Fire cameras could prevent devastation in basin
Left: Pilot program cameras; right: camera network when the system is built out. Images/UNR
By Kathryn Reed
INCLINE VILLAGE – If the fire alert system that is in its infancy in the Lake Tahoe Basin had been in place in 2007, the Angora Fire might not have wiped out 254 homes on the South Shore.
That is the prediction of Graham Kent, a South Tahoe High School graduate who is now the state seismologist for Nevada. He gave a talk Jan. 8 at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences about AlertTahoe, the fire camera system that is being developed in Tahoe.
That same day the newest camera – at Homewood Mountain Resort – came online. Other cameras are at Snow Valley Peak, Angel’s Roost at Heavenly Mountain Resort, and on California Tahoe Conservancy property in North Lake Tahoe. A permit is secured to place a camera above Whittell High School, but there is no money to do so.
“Angora would be easy to control under a system like this,” Kent told the group.
The problem with Angora was dispatchers in Truckee believed it was a controlled burn and didn’t direct resources to the wildland fire in a timely manner. These cameras would have shown that smoke was no control burn. Plus, officials are working to put information on the website that identifies prescribed burns.
There was a time when people said a massive fire could not burn in the Sierra. The Rim and King fires prove that theory wrong. Had the winds changed, last September’s King Fire would have easily entered the basin at Tahoma.
Kent showed time lapsed images of the King Fire smoke that was captured on one of the cameras.
“You’re looking at stands of trees blowing up,” he said, as there would be a burst of smoke.
At one point flames are visible. (Video is in HD and 4K, with infrared capability.) The cameras can be moved to get a wider or zoomed in view.
On July 29 a camera picked up smoke on Mount Pluto at Northstar that neither CalFire nor the U.S. Forest Service was aware of. A storm came through to douse those flames. On Aug. 9 a tree was on fire north of Spooner. Officials knew about it because of a camera. The fire was kept to a half acre.
“That’s the point of the system. We find them, knock them down and make them small,” Kent said.
The Sept. 24 Cascade Fire allowed officials to see what a small fire looks like at night.
The U.S. Forest Service used to use fire lookouts to spot fires. These cameras are the modern day version of those lookouts – only much better. Fire agencies and the public may view them online.
The cameras are also used by UNR scientists to study earthquakes and floods. But as Kent pointed out, the cameras cannot change the size of those disasters. The cameras can help contain a fire.
An effort is under way to raise $2 million – in public and private dollars – in the next decade to be able to install more cameras, as well as to keep up with the maintenance and operation.
It cost $160 million to fight the Angora Fire, and at just more than 3,000 acres, that was a small fire. Angora was 1 to 3 percent of the size of the Rim and King fires.
With the snowpack diminishing in the Sierra and climate change taking hold, Kent said, “It is a very poor time to sit back and let fire happen.”
He said one fire could wipe out all of the $3 billion in environmental improvements that have been made in the basin since the 1990s.
The program continues to evolve. AlertTahoe is working with BLM to show two weeks worth of lightning strikes. If people think they see smoke from a fire, that location could be matched with where the lightning occurred. A Twitter feed, that will be activated this spring, will be geared toward spreading AlertTahoe info to the masses. The ability to show longitude and latitude identifiers for fires is in the works. And the website interface is being expanded.
—–
Notes:
• For more info or to help fund the project, go online.
If you would like to hear more about Alert Tahoe, Dr. Kent is planning to do a presentation at the South Lake Tahoe Library, Saturday, April 18th at 1 PM. This is something our community should know about and support.
I proposed something like this right after the Angora Fire and our Fire Departments poo-pooed it, probably because it wasn’t their idea.
Some of these newly designed systems are sensitive enough to detect fire the size of a bar-b-que fire out in the forest and automatically notify fire officials and neighborhood residents.
They can triangulate the location of the fire.
They are solar powered with battery back-up and have proven to work in other areas.
Great article Kent ! Thanks for bringing it to our attention again !
Fire cameras are essential in the Tahoe area. I hope they get the funding to place them everywhere.
There is an old fire watch tower off of Angora Lakes road up on the ridgeline but I’m not sure if it’s still being used. I’ll take that job if there’s an opening!
We live in a heavily forested area and fire can spread rapidly in these old neighborhoods. Plus we’re in a drought, so the chance for a wildfire has increased dramaticaly.
Get one, if not two, fire fighting helicopters at the airport on standby at all times in case of a fire in the basin.
All our lives may depend on being proactive about reducing the frequency of fires and putting them out in Tahoe before they spread and burn the whole place down!!!
Remember ,there are not that many escape routes from the Tahoe basin!!! Be fire safe,OLS
$160 million to fight the angora fire !!
I raised the question of ” why the fire lookout on Angora ridge has been unmanned for many years,” and was told that with so many people using cell phones, it was no longer necessary.HELLO ! Has any one here in the basin ever called 911 ?
I have on about 5 occasions and if ever the need arises you have to ask to be transferred to SLT dispatch, bc you initially are talking to a dispatcher off the hill.
Perhaps things have changed since my last call this past summer as the fire erupted
Near Truckee??
Today’s technology should allow for cameras to observe the basins forests, but for millions of $ ??
OLS I would be happy to man the existing fire lookout with you on a voluntary basis,
On my nickel.I believe there is another fire lookout above Zephyr Cove ?? Also unmanned but usable.These lookouts have spectacular, panoramic views of the surrounding area , as they should.
Are there other old lookouts around the basin ??
Well let’s hope we have a fire free summer
Cpt Kiwi.
Steve Buttling, Yes, along with Angora Ridge there is another fire watch atop Zephyr Heights on Look Out rd. Right at the very pinnacle of the peak and unmanned, as last I saw.
So what say ye Capt. Kiwi? You stand watch on one, I’ll have my eyes open on the other!
Lookin’ for smoke and fires! OLS
Lol OLS .My vantage point , usually out on the lake , is where I have made most 911 calls. If ever on the lake the most direct line of communication is by VHF radio channel 16 to the USCG . They are there 24/7 standing by .Cant wait for my new fire watch assignment. Do you recall when we were young in body seeing TV shows highlighting the USFS ranger manning the fire watch tower ?
let’s do it !!
Steve Buttling, I have a couple of pair of old binoculars at the ready so we can man the two fire watch towers and alert the fire crews via radio should we see smoke!
All kidding aside , I would LOVE that job! Yes, I do remember watching on TV those shows about those guys living atop a tower , all alone looking for a fire.
That would be great!!! Sign me up! If there is an opening , I’m ready to go! OLS
Thanks for the positive comments! If you go to alerttahoe.seismo.unr.edu and click on Wildfires, you’ll get to the fire camera page. And yes, the cameras were used today to watch the controlled burn on the east side of Lake Tahoe. The $2M price tag includes build out and operations for 10 years, and it’s that cheap because we are using earthquake infrastructure already! The system uses our private microwave to ensure timely access to time lapse video and other useful features that will be rolled out this spring when our high speed server comes online (funded outside of this campaign). The cameras will also be going up and down over the next several weeks to fix and harden power at our stations.
Fire personnel already have access to PTZ the various cameras. Anyhow please attend one of my talks to get more info or email me at gkent@unr.edu
Oh yes, please donate today …. Alerttahoe.seismo.unr.edu
PS $160M price tag for Angora Fire included homes destroyed and actual cost to fight the fire, but not any short or long term economic impacts such as motel vacancies, etc.
Dr Kent, how do these systems work? Does someone need to watch them all the time, or is there software that helps with the monitoring and notifies someone to look at the camera?
Presently our cameras require someone to watch them :>) to spot fires or smoke. Once a high speed fire camera server is installed at UNR next month, we’ll have time-lapse on the fly—which helps enormously in catching the ignition phase of a fire. Although various fire folks around the lake have access to PTZ and watch, we also like the crowd source model so we can get people involved in Tahoe and around the world to watch these cameras, especially during red flag days. UNR has recently hired a senior Professor from Germany who specializes in “machine learning” and has adapted this to spotting fires automatically using cameras, and he’s excited to lend his expertise to the auto-detect portion. So the real answer is ALL OF ATHE ABOVE. I’m happy to give a talk at any and all venues to help educate and maybe inspire to get folks involved and to donate. It looks like another drought year unfortunately. Also, our system is designed to watch multiple fires at once (at least the final design) as arson, earthquakes and lightening all have that commonality.