SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KRON) — Tubbs, Bear, August Lightning Complex, Zogg.
Every wildfire whose name you can still remember started out small, and exploded too fast for firefighters to contain and get residents out the path of flames.
A team dedicated to operating ALERTWildfire cameras are on a 24/7 mission to give firefighters rapid intelligence.
The team has hundreds of cameras perched atop peaks in California, Nevada, and Oregon. Live cameras give firefighters windows into remote areas of wilderness to spot smoke plumes, pinpoint exact locations, observe how fast a fire is spreading, make evacuation orders, and dispatch enough resources.
CZU fires: Stories of death and survival on Last Chance Road
“The fire that you want is the fire you don’t remember. It’s the Blue Fire and no one knows about it because it was a half acre,” said Graham Hill, project leader of ALERTWildfire.
The newest camera just went live on Montara Mountain in San Mateo County. The Santa Cruz Wharf is also slated to receive a camera to detect smoke plumes billowing from the Santa Cruz mountains, and Big Sur’s rugged mountains are also slated for several cameras soon.
The importance of live cameras was apparent in Big Sur last summer when fire officials were unable to see the severity of the Dolan Fire until a fire chief remembered that a local condor sanctuary had live “Condor Cams.”
Big Sur firefighters use Condor Cams as tool for fighting wildfire
ALERTWildfire began with just one camera at Lake Tahoe in 2013. Now, with more than 850 cameras, its expansive network provides a service for firefighters, journalists, and the public.
“It gives the firefighters first eyes on the fire to allow them to size-up. In the Kincaid Fire, the first view was ‘oh my god,’ … how do we get people out of the way,” Hill said.
ALERTWildfire cameras were critical tools for issuing evacuations and saving lives during the 2020 Kincaid Fire in Santa Rosa, and helped prevent the fire from turning deadly like the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
Hill said there are wildfire watchdogs, average people who monitor ALERTWildfire cameras on their own volition, who can save lives by Tweeting when they see a smoke plume. Hill is encouraging more people to form wildfire watch groups to help sound the alarm.
When the Glass Fire ignited, one wildfire watchdog on Twitter, CAFireScanner, played a huge role in alerting local residents that a fire was rapidly growing out of control.
Hill became passionate about improving wildfire intelligence after his home was destroyed by the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego County. The fire’s rapid growth was driven by the Santa Ana winds.
“There wasn’t anyone there to tell us to get out of our house. It was kind of the canary in the coal mine,” Hill said.
ALERTWildfire wants everyone to use its cameras for situational awareness in case a 911 call never comes. “Try to beat 911,” Hill said.
When flames from the 2020 CZU August Lightning Complex surged through the Santa Cruz Mountains, ALERTWildfire cameras streamed the mayhem live up until the moment that cameras were completely burned over. Several cameras were destroyed in Bonny Doon, but the team has already set up new cameras in their place.
One of many victories for the team happened in 2016 when an arsonist was on the loose in Lake Tahoe igniting fires day and night. ALERTWildfire cameras spotted smoke plumes so fast that firefighters were able to jump on each fire fast enough.
As bad as the last few years were for wildfires in California, this year is anticipated to be worse because of severe drought conditions.
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“This is the toughest fire season we are heading into,” Hill said.
“Fuel moisture is at an all-time low. With the dry conditions this year, there is a lot of attention to making sure that whole South Bay corridor is watched very carefully,” Hill said.
“And if you go on the other side of the hill toward Silicon Valley, it’s an absolute mess. The amount of fuel surrounding all the sea-level executives from Silicon Valley, that’s a disaster ready to happen. That has to be something where you need to get that intel and you have to be quick. Because once you get (fires) going in that environment that’s not an easy place to fire fires. That’s not a safe place to fight fires. The more we can pack (cameras) into the CZU footprint, the better off we are,” Hill said.