Arizona Public Service has installed about half of its planned wildfire detecting cameras across the state, and they’ve already spotted at least two fire starts.
Wade Ward is Wildfire Mitigation manager with APS and was showing off the technology Monday morning.
“The Horton Fire that was in Payson up on along the rim is a good indication, or maybe a bad indication of what the potential for the fire season might be but all of those were detected by the Pano-AI cameras," Ward said.
He says the power company is working to install 30 of these artificial intelligence cameras across the state by May first in high fire risk areas.
APS is sharing its footage with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
Russ Shumate with the agency says the cameras help in early stages of fires.
“It allows us to find the location a lot quicker. It’s just more precise reporting to allow us to make management decisions immediately," Shumate said.
