Bushfire detection technology has come a long way since CFA Commander Gavin Parker began his service with the organisation, working as a volunteer firefighter at the Neerim South Fire Brigade in 1976.
Parker told the Monitor back in those days firefighters would rely primarily on trained personnel in watchtowers to spot and call in dangerous fires.
Now, Australian firefighters have access to more tools, like roaming bushfire detecting aircraft and satellite imagery.
But Parker said the most significant advancement has been the rollout of AI cameras just south of Morwell, placed strategically on high vantage point weather masts at the Delburn Wind Farm.
CFA Commander Gavin Parker.
What happened: In December 2023, Australian-founded company Pano AI installed two of its fire detecting cameras at the site of the State Electricity Commission’s (SEC) Delburn Wind Farm to survey the surrounding landscape.
Since then, Parker said the cameras have become a vital tool in alerting firefighters about potentially dangerous developments in the area and they have improved response times.
More to come: With a potentially sweltering summer driven by a record-breaking El Niño around the corner, the SEC is looking to install a third camera at the site to improve the system's ability to identify fires.
How it works: The cameras are installed on weather masts at the wind farm and can scan a 360 degree radius over 30km to detect smoke and other signs of fire.
The radius of a Pano AI camera around the Delburn wind farm.
What they said: SEC General Manager Lane Crockett told the Monitor the system is trained on footage of bushfires to help it recognise the early-stage characteristics of bushfire smoke and heat.
The Pano AI cameras use GPS and AI technology that can very precisely provide the co-ordinates of smoke to first responders.
“The system's ability to detect the exact location of a bushfire will be greatly improved once there are three cameras at the site because it will then be able to triangulate the location of the fire,” Crockett said.
Once the cameras have identified a fire an automatic email is sent to the Morwell CFA where the information is then reviewed by a firefighter.
A video screenshot of the Pano AI system identifying smoke in the distance.
Parker said the beauty of these systems is the cameras run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the CFA will always get updates on developments in the area.
“If we've got fire trucks on route to a fire, we can monitor it online and say: ‘This is something that has actually increased in size.’ That might help us form a decision to escalate the response to a fire quicker than we normally would.”
Protect the farm: The cameras are part of an overall fire protection strategy for the state-owned Delburn Wind Farm.
The site will also include five 130,000 litre firefighting water tanks and each of the 33 wind turbines will be equipped with fire suppression systems that can put out fires within the towers.