February 2010
Bushfire detection cameras are being trialled in Australia
this summer in the Otway Ranges, on Victoria’s south-west
coast and near Tumut in New South Wales.
The cameras have been placed in strategic positions around
the Otway Ranges and on a fire tower in Tumut and will be evaluated
by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre on their performance in
detecting fire starts.
This will be a research trial but the data will be made
available to local fire incident control centres and the central
operations of the state’s fire services.
The trial will be conducted by the Bushfire CRC, the
Federal Attorney-General’s Department, Victoria’s
Office of Emergency Services Commissioner (in conjunction with
other Victorian agencies) and Forests NSW.
The main aim of the trial is to compare the performance of
different fire detection camera systems from three vendors on their
ability to:
·
Detect fire starts
·
Exclude false detections of fire starts
·
Integrate into fire service systems and processes, including
warnings to the community.
Dr Richard Thornton, Research Director of the Bushfire
CRC, said the trial would provide useful baseline data on the
cameras. “Technology such as fire detection cameras can be of
great assistance to fire managers but we need to better understand
their strengths and their limitations before deciding to adopt them
on a broader scale.
“We will be looking at how accurately and quickly
they can detect when a fire starts and then compare this with other
methods such as fire towers, spotter planes and satellites, and
reports made by the public on the ground. All these
methods are still important so the fire detection cameras would
need to be able to work in well with the current fire management
operations.”
In Victoria, three different types of fire detection
camera systems have been spread throughout the region from Anglesea
on the coast and inland to Winchelsea South. The systems will
include video, still images, and heat and other detection
methods.
The trial will run to April 2010 with an option to extend
into the autumn planned burning period if there is insufficient
data collected over the summer. A report will be
produced shortly after the trial concludes.
