The Austin Fire Department received a recommendation from the Public Safety Commission April 7 to purchase and install a wildfire early detection system for the city of Austin. The Austin City Council will vote on purchasing the system at its meeting Thursday.
The system uses technology developed by FireWatch America. Cameras sit on towers and analyze the skyline for wildfire smoke. The sensors are able to triangulate where the fire is, and alert the staff monitoring the system.
“We’re looking into the possibility of trying one out here, and seeing if it can help us detect fires quicker and help us also locate fires,” said Austin Fire Department Assistant Director Jim Linardos.
The Austin Fire Department started looking into a wildfire early detection system after 2011, when the number of outside and other fires in Travis County increased 48 percent from 2010, according to the Texas Fire Incident Reporting System. The city of Austin accounted for 24 percent of these fires in Travis County in 2011, according to the Austin Fire Department.
“Our projected costs right now are somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000 a sensor,” said Austin Fire Department Chief of Staff Harry Evans at the Public Safety Commission meeting.
The sensors also require staff to watch the monitors. According to a memo from Austin Deputy City Manager Michael McDonald, a staff of two to four members could monitor the sensors only on high-risk days. This would cost between $116,000 to $232,000 a year, he said.
Evans said they believe they can use existing cell towers, which would reduce the costs.
West Lake Hills, west of Austin, installed a FireWatch America early fire detection system in 2013, and the Austin Fire Department recommends purchasing two more sensors for Travis County to use in conjunction with the existing one in West Lake Hills.
“What we’re looking at is utilizing the one the city of West Lake has, in addition to Travis County buying one and the city buying one for a total of three and they would have overlapping coverages,” said Evans.
Austin Fire Department wants to purchase these sensors in conjunction with Travis County, and see after a year how the sensors aid the early detection of wildland fires.
“We would look at that for a period of about a year to determine the efficacy in detection and how much it advances our ability to detect fires early in the wildland urban interface,” said Evans.
One concern brought up was that the technology for FireWatch America early detection system was created more for larger forest areas instead of the wildland urban area like Travis County and Austin.
“It may not be the primary detection of wildfires. It may be secondary and tertiary. It may be size of the fire, where it’s located and get us there quicker,” said Linardos.
If the City Council passes the recommendation to try for a year, Linardos said he is looking forward to testing it out and see if it helps locate fires easier and quicker.