MEAD, Wash. – On Friday afternoon, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources unveiled a new partnership with Pano AI to aid in their wildfire fighting efforts.
Founded in 2020, by a team of former firefighters and technology experts to help advance wildfire prevention tactics. Already established in six states, Pano AI will set up 21 stations across Washington this year.
“Washington State has been leading the nation in exploring innovative technology solutions to help with wildfire mitigation,” Pano AI CEO, Sonia Kastner, said. “Starting on Monday, we’re going to get to the process of deploying in time for this fire season.”
Pano’s stations are generally set up in remote, high-vantage areas where their high-definition, 360° cameras can capture a 15-mile radius. Using deep learning AI and computer vision, the stations can flag potential wildfires for fire monitoring professionals. Pano can also easily send out alerts to those professionals, giving them exact coordinates to the location of a fire, allowing professionals to put it out that much faster.
“If you think about a fire in the middle of a city, usually the caller calls 911 and can give an address,” Spokane County Fire Division 9, Chief Nathan, Jeffries said. “Out in the rural areas and the forested areas… there isn’t a street name.”
Having that exact location should help cut down early response times, which are the most valuable minutes in preventing a large-scale wildfire.
“This project will give our firefighters and the Department of Natural Resources around the clock detection of incidents at the earliest stage of ignition,” Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, said, “That is going to be something that brings us quick detection equals quick response.”
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