Firefighters want every leg up they can get to knock out a blaze before it becomes an inferno. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says it has a new tool to battle wildfires before they explode – artificial intelligence.
Cal Fire, in partnership with UC San Diego’s ALERTCalifornia Program and its network of more than 1,000 cameras across the state, is using the technology to recognize a fire early on.
In the nearly two months since Cal Fire first received access to the AI, the program has alerted the agency to 128 incidents before 911 were calls were logged – sometimes more than 20 minutes before, according to data provided to The Times.