Fire detection trial at Mt Wombat

Forest Fire Management Victoria acting chief fire officer Aaron Kennedy said early detection gave firefighters the best chance of containing bushfires while they were small, helping to reduce impacts on communities and the environment.

FFMVic operates 65 fire detection towers across Victoria, staffed by trained fire lookout observers who monitor the landscape for fires and support the rapid deployment of firefighting resources.

Mr Kennedy said as part of a current trial, smoke-detecting artificial intelligence technology was being used, with cameras installed at a number of fire lookout towers across Victoria, including Mt Wombat near Euroa.

The technology complements the work of fire lookout observers, providing an additional tool to help identify bushfires as early as possible.

Fire lookout observers are deployed to towers based on fire danger forecasts, seasonal risk, weather conditions and bushfire activity.

The camera trial is being delivered in four phases to explore how remote sensing technologies and artificial intelligence can support bushfire detection in Victoria.

It is assessing the reliability and timeliness of smoke-detecting AI technology under Victorian conditions.

A total of 24 cameras are operating across 14 sites, comprising 22 FFMVic-managed cameras across 12 sites and two vendor-managed cameras across two additional sites.

The findings will help inform FFMVic’s future use of remote fire detection technology to support bushfire detection and response.

Meanwhile, the north-eastern pine forests are getting more bushfire cameras in a jointly funded upgrade with Hancock Victorian Plantations and the Green Triangle alliance.

While the cameras will be installed on private plantations in western and eastern Victoria, their reach is much greater.

The network will provide coverage across more than 1.4 million hectares of land, including 211,000 hectares of plantation.