Fire Sensors

Reported September 2005

SAN DIEGO (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Wildfires often begin unnoticed, spreading quickly, with devastating consequences. Homeowner Dorothy Roth is still in shock three years after a wildfire raged through her backcountry community in southern California. She lost everything.

"We were so lucky to get out. I mean, another 30 seconds, and we probably wouldn't have been able to get out," Roth says. She had no warning the fire was so close. "There was no smoke, and there were no flames to be seen ... at all."

Ecologists from the Ecological Reserve in Fallbrook, Calif., are working on a project called FireAlert that can give homeowners like Roth an early warning of an impending wildfire. The project consists of wireless sensors that are able to spot a fire in its earliest stages, up to six miles away.

John Kim, ecological information management researcher from San Diego State University in San Diego, says, "[The sensors are made of] a mirror that rotates 360 degrees, which takes the reflective signal from the horizon. And it goes into a sensor device that's looking for a specific signature of heated carbon dioxide."

Once the signature Kim describes is sited, the wireless sensors quickly determine the fire's precise location and the sensors continue to send information to a central computer indicating direction and size of the fire. Steve Abbott, division chief of San Diego North County Fire Protection District, says, "What this technology gives is the opportunity for communications centers and emergency response personnel to know when a fire is occurring."

Roth believes a web of sensors can give both homeowners and firefighters a fighting chance and says, "It certainly has the potential to be a huge lifesaver."

The fire sensor network is already capable of sending information to a computer network. The system can also notify people by phone or e-mail when a fire is near their home. San Diego State University researchers plan to install 13 sensors in the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve over the next two-and-half years.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Aaron Hoskins
(619) 594-1119
ahoskins@mail.sdsu.edu

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
IEEE-USA
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Washington, D.C. 20036-5104
(202) 785-0017
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The American Society of Civil Engineers
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(800) 548-2723
http://www.asce.org



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