Technology Can Save Lives in Wildfires: Remote Sensing (Part II)

In the first blog of this series, I suggested that changing the paradigm of delivering a firefighter to a wildfire-threatened home would a be good application of several technologies – fire suppression equipment (e.g., water, foams, gels) at each home or near a group of homes to water sprays at each home.

Remote sensing and monitoring technologies continue to challenge past and current methods of delivering security and surveillance of populated places (e.g., industrial plants, traffic flows) and conditions in those as close as your car’s engine to those as inaccessible as the ocean floor and portions of the universe. Remote sensing and monitoring technologies are so accepted now that most of us think little about the amazing benefits we derive from them. That Garmin or Magellan or TomTom box in your car is so valuable in local-to-long distance travel that they may eventually render paper road maps obsolete. (Actually, I think road maps are already mysteries to many and certainly will be to following generations).

Fire suppression and control technology is certainly a major factor in reducing fire loss, but it does not stand alone. Fire suppression (and other passive and active systems) should be coupled with other technologies for more successful deployments. Remote sensing can save lives by providing early warning of changing fire conditions, for the public in preparation for evacuation, and for incident command to protect fire crews through improved situational awareness. Evacuation planning and execution, faster and safer responses, continuous monitoring of extreme fire conditions, the ability to transfer the data to generate accurate and detailed GIS maps for planning, operations, and evaluation of suppression and mitigation efforts – these and more are the potential benefits.

Coming up next blog: Opportunities for regulatory solutions to reducing wildfire losses…