More Eyes In The Sky For Wildfire Season

Dan Nuñez pulls up a video feed on his computer. ‘Can you see that?’ he asks, pointing to some rolling, foggy hills in rural Oregon. The footage was captured seven minutes before Nuñez opened up his browser. Barely perceptible on the screen is a rising plume of smoke.

‘I would not have caught that,’ Nuñez said after hitting replay. ‘But the AI does.’ The artificial intelligence Nuñez is referring to comes from Pano AI, a California startup that makes high-definition cameras to detect, track and manage flames.

As the manager of wildfire planning and analytics at Portland General Electric, Nuñez is responsible for doing everything possible, as early as possible, to find and put out fires.

A cottage industry in fire detection technology has taken root, especially in the western US, as fires have become more frequent, larger and financially ruinous.