VIDEO: Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is using first of its kind satellite technology with the goal of being the first to know when a wildfire sparks.
With the 2019 fire season underway, PG&E has launched their wildfire tracking system, using heat sensored satellite technology to better track wildfires.
According to the utility company's spokesperson, Paul Moreno, PG&E has devoted several years of testing and development to incorporate the wildfire detection and alert system. Just as Cal Fire and people who live in California have had to adapt to the "new normal" of devastating wildfires, so have they.
In many cases the satellite system is expected to provide an early, if not the first, indication of an incident.
According to PG&E, it works by incorporating data from two new GOES satellites, as well as three polar orbiting satellites, to provide PG&E with advanced warning of potential new fires.