About This Episode
In this inaugural episode of the Catching Wildfire podcast series, Chief Jeff Johnson (Ret.) and Chief Kim Zagaris are joined by Dr. Neal Driscoll as they discuss the Alert West Wildfire Camera & Sensor Networks used to detect wildfires on the West Coast.
Dr. Neal Driscoll as they discuss the Alert West Wildfire Camera & Sensor Networks used to detect wildfires on the West Coast. Dr. Neal Driscoll is the principal investigator of the ALERTCalifornia program at the University of California San Diego, where he is a professor of geology and geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
About The Speaker
Driscoll’s background in natural hazard research traces back more than 35 years. He has published more than 120 manuscripts in high impact peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Nature Geoscience, Geology, and the Journal of Geophysical Research on subjects ranging from earthquake hazards to devastating wildfires., He has received multiple awards during his career, including the Heezen and Storke Awards for excellence in research and UC San Diego’s inaugural Undergraduate Teaching Award. Driscoll has also appeared in articles published by The Associated Press, The New York Times, CBS News, The Los Angeles Times, KGTV, KPBS and other notable news outlets.
Driscoll received his Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from Columbia University and worked as an associate research scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, MA before joining UC San Diego in 2000. His research interests at Scripps Oceanography include landscape and seascape evolution in response to tectonic deformation, sea-level fluctuations, climate, neotectonics, and geohazards.
Episode 1 Show Notes
Catching Wildfire: The Evolution of Alert California
Main Message: Alert California is a transformative, open-source technological ecosystem that leverages a network of 1,200 advanced cameras and human-in-the-loop AI to detect wildfires in their incipient phase, providing firefighters and the public with critical situational awareness to save lives and property.
Key Points
1. The “Success of Silence”: Dr. Neal Driscoll defines the success of the Alert California system by the “fires you’ve never heard about.” By utilizing nearly 1,200 pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, the system allows dispatchers and firefighters to confirm ignitions—often before a 911 call is placed—enabling rapid suppression during the critical early stages of a fire.
2. Human-Centric AI Integration: While the system utilizes sophisticated AI to detect smoke and heat, it maintains a “human-in-the-loop” philosophy. AI is used to minimize “watch stander fatigue” and filter out false positives, but a subject matter expert (firefighter) always verifies the alert before action is taken, ensuring that technology augments rather than replaces human expertise.
3. Open Source and Collaborative Architecture: Originally an academic project at UC San Diego, the platform is intentionally open-source. Data is shared freely with utilities, CAL FIRE, and neighboring states like Nevada and Oregon. This collaborative spirit extends to international efforts, with plans to share the technology with less fortunate countries to mitigate disaster-related fatalities globally.
4. A Multi-Hazard Platform: Beyond wildfire detection, the network serves as a multi-hazard tool. It provides early warnings for earthquakes (via seismic sensors) and monitors drainage basins for flooding and debris flows during atmospheric rivers. This versatility is essential for managing the “unprecedented” weather extremes caused by a changing climate.
5. Empowering Public Decision-Making: The system provides the public with the same visual data used by professionals through platforms like the Esri Living Atlas. Dr. Driscoll emphasizes that citizens should use this data to practice “self-evacuation,” urging people to leave threatened areas based on visual evidence rather than waiting for official orders.
Notable Quotes
“We define the success of this program as the fires you’ve never heard about. So they’ve been suppressed early in their history in the incipient phase so that we have a fighting chance.” — Dr. Neal Driscoll, Professor at UC San Diego and Founder of Alert California
“AI for good, not AI for bad. The cameras are providing us enhanced situational awareness… You’re pivotal in this process. And when [the lookout volunteer] heard that, I wasn’t the bad guy anymore.” — Dr. Neal Driscoll
“Data are only as good as the amount of people they touch.” — Dr. Neal Driscoll
Conclusion
This discussion highlights a critical shift in emergency management: the transition from reactive response to data-driven proactive suppression. By bridging the gap between high-level academic research and boots-on-the-ground fire service, Alert California has created a blueprint for modern disaster mitigation. For the fire service, it offers a tool for enhanced situational awareness; for the public, it provides the transparency needed to make life-saving decisions in real-time. This collaborative, open-access model proves that technology is most effective when it is shared across borders and jurisdictions to serve the common good.