Fire Fighting Technologies ForestWatch bushfire early detection system

ForestWatch is a computerised, semiautomatic system that alerts fire personnel to the exact location of a fire and sends real-time imagery of the fire to the local fire chief giving the opportunity to respond to a fire before it spreads and threatens communities.

It is an open system that uses commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) cameras backed by the capacity to detect smoke signature at day and fire glow at night. When atmospheric conditions are optimal, it can detect a 0.1 Ha fire at 50 km. Six minutes is the time it takes the unit to complete a 360° rotation for a 16 km detection range.

A key differentiating factor is that triangulation is not needed to accurately determine fire location. A digital terrain model of the land under the coverage of each camera is loaded. Each pixel of a camera’s field of view is associated with a ground location. The user is then only a click away from the fire location (longitude, latitude, bearing, distance).

The system can work day and night and can be powered by a solar panel.