A light gray column of smoke rising above the trees in northern Sonoma County Tuesday led a Highway 101 motorist to call 911, reporting smoke near “the ridge of the Geysers,” a Cal Fire official said.
Local firefighters who know the roads and ridges well eventually would have found the source of the smoke, but a new fire-detection camera installed two weeks ago on Geyser Peak gave Cal Fire officials an immediate view of the thin column rising in the afternoon.
With Cal Fire dispatchers adjusting the angle of the camera — installed by Sonoma County sheriff’s staff Oct. 4 — from the communications center in St. Helena, Battalion Chief Marshall Turbeville viewed the live video on his cellphone, already in his truck looking for the fire.
“I was in a valley and the fire was in the next valley, so I couldn’t see the smoke,” Turbeville said. “The camera helped get everyone in the right direction.”