VIDEO: There now is a network of cameras in high fire risk areas up and down the state helping guide firefighting efforts.
It started with just three cameras in Tahoe and grew exponentially. Now, the fairly new technology is already proving to be a critical tool when it comes to pinpointing the location of a fire.
“It’s really about getting that first initial attack, get that intel nailed down?,” said Dr. Graham Kent, Director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.
More than 300 state-of-the-art, high definition, near-infrared cameras are watching for wildfires from Lake Tahoe to Grass Valley, Calaveras County and down to Southern California.
“Once a fire has been called in, within 30 seconds that person in dispatch is gonna know what is going on and how to dispatch material, personnel, airstrikes,” said Kent.