Hawaiian Electric has deployed 180 AI-powered cameras across Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu, and Maui County to help detect early signs of wildfires in remote areas.
The utility has partnered with the company ALERTWest to set up and operate the cameras.
Each camera takes a panoramic image of its surroundings every two minutes. Artificial intelligence scans the image for signs of smoke.
If an image is flagged by the camera's AI program, it gets reviewed by a human at ALERTWest's operations center in California. If that person confirms signs of fire, they will alert emergency managers and first responders in the area.
Scott Schifando, the vice president of operations at ALERTWest, said Hawaiʻi's cameras are now part of an AI-powered wildfire detection network that spans 11 states and supports 500 emergency management agencies.
The feeds from the cameras can also be viewed by the public.
HECO has implemented the cameras to improve situational awareness of wildfire conditions, one of the main goals of its wildfire safety strategy.
The images can help emergency managers coordinate their response, said Hawaiʻi County Fire Chief Kazuo Todd.
"It allows us to have the same picture being sent to everybody in the field that is responding or that is sitting in the [emergency operations center], so that we can all be on the same page," Todd said.
Hawaiʻi Island already has 56 cameras across 41 sites, but Todd said some areas could use better coverage.
That’s true of the Hāmākua Coast, where two small wildfires broke out this past weekend.
"Sadly, we really only have one camera that sort of overviews the area, and it is a little bit higher up in elevation, so cloud cover made it difficult to see," Todd said, though he added that the camera did provide information about the quantity and color of the smoke from the fires.
Todd is in talks with the HECO and ALERTWest about a mobile camera that could be deployed to the exact location of a wildfire outbreak to track its progression.
HECO indicated that it's open to expanding the network.
"The program is off to what we consider to be a really good start, and it has room to grow," said HECO spokesperson Darren Pai.
