UNR Testing New Remote Cameras To Monitor Wildfires

People in the path of a fire often get the latest information from the news. But now there is a new tool.

“We are looking at a vision of how to fight fires in the 21^st century,” says the Director of the UNR Seismological Laboratory, Graham Kent. 

Kent installed high-definition, infrared cameras on earthquake monitoring stations in the Sierra mountaintops. 

Now, he can watch the Bison Fire south of Carson City from his office in Reno.  He can control the cameras with his cell phone or tablet, and he wants to get the public and Forest Service involved too.

“When you see a puff of smoke start up, then you get on Twitter and you basically get people to look at the cameras if this looks like a fire and that information goes to fire centers,” explains Kent.

Kent says people in the path of fires can use the real-time monitoring to get to safety.