Summer is slowly fading, but it’s still hot. Especially in North Idaho.
“ Our fire danger today is very high,” said Kane Steinbruecker, the chief fire warden of the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association. “We're one step below extreme, so we're still very much in fire season, and we want folks to understand that and to plan accordingly when they go to the woods.”
The summer fire season in North Idaho is on track to be average, he said, not better or worse than normal. But firefighting is becoming a year-round activity.
And as technology advances, firefighters are utilizing new ways of detecting fires early.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, have made it possible to capture photos of remote parts of the forest.
A radio crackles with details about the latest wildfires at the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association’s office. Steinbruecker looks at a monitor filled with wide-angle camera views of the mountains, covered in evergreen trees.
”They take a 360-degree panoramic photograph every two minutes, and it will compare the one that it just took to the one that it took prior,” he said.
If the AI detects a difference between the photos, the image is sent to a control center in California. A person double-checks the photos, and then sends an alert if it looks like smoke, Steinbruecker said.
“We have had dozens of fires that have been detected this year by the cameras,” said Scott Hayes, deputy fire chief for the Idaho Department of Lands.
Two of those fires, the Cherry Fire and the Center Canyon Fire, were big wildfires, he said. Early detection allows fire teams more time to assess the situation and prepare the right response.
Hayes said there is a lot of time remaining this fire season, and conditions are still hot and dry.
“We are still seeing the effects of a very dry spring and early summer,” he said. “We have been lucky with a few rain showers, but are still in drought conditions across nearly all of the state.”
Fire season can extend into November, Steinbruecker said, and with hunting season around the corner, he said to “make sure your campfires are dead out.”
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