SALT LAKE CITY — Drones and emerging infrared camera imaging technology could provide a much-needed boost to wildland firefighters in the coming years as they try to spot wildfires in their infancy.

Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands spokesman Jason Curry said Tuesday a national unmanned aircraft system could be in place within the next few years to help with monitoring, measuring and eventually detecting wildfires.

“Something real-time that could notify dispatch centers is something on the horizon,” Curry said. “We’re excited to see what it does ultimately bring.”

NASA, the U.S. Forest Service and private entities are all currently looking at next-generation fire detection systems using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Curry.

One of those systems is being developed by UC Berkeley researchers and is known as FUEGO, or Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit.

The system's concept — a year-and-a-half after scientists first went public with it — now involves drones equipped with infrared cameras to go along with a sophisticated fire-stalking satellite.

"When we started FUEGO, real UAVs were a gleam in people's eye," researcher Carl Pennypacker noted in an email to KSL. "Now there are long-duration ones, inexpensive ones, very effective ones. So the UAV environment has improved a lot!"

Pennypacker is an astrophysicist and notes that the technology works in a similar way to how scientists currently spot supernovas elsewhere in the universe.

"Finding a fire at the edge of the Universe, looking up, is similar to finding a fire from orbit, looking down," Pennypacker said. "Supernovae are bright exploding stars against a cluttered background, all searching and discovery done very quickly. So we were good at supernova finding, so I decided to apply some of the same technology to fires."

Pennypacker foresees "incremental changes in wildfire detection, with some improvements coming in the next few years with costs as low as $1 million." The cost of the FUEGO satellite is closer to $80 million, but Pennypacker said California spends $400 million per year in firefighting costs and the "cost to society" is "5 to 10 times that."

"Because of the government bureaucracy and red tape, no one in California is willing to do this," Pennypacker said. "But we keep trying!"

Curry said the state of Utah was contacted last week by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory about interest in another fire detection program employing satellites.

"There are a lot of things happening," Curry said.

As costs of some of the technologies involved have come down to earth, Curry said they have become more practical options for firefighting entities with limited budgets.

"We want to keep fires small, therefore less expensive and lower impact on the landscape," Curry said. "So any initiative out there that is going to help us with early detection, we're going to be interested in looking at it."

As it is right now, Curry said firefighters have access to some satellite imaging technology, including the MODIS, or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.

Curry said that system isn't entirely helpful in detecting new fire starts, since data often reaches firefighters hours after the fire began.

In that time with the right conditions and winds, Curry said wildfires can spread drastically. "We've seen fires move 50 miles an hour, so it could consume hundreds of acres in just a short timeframe - minutes," Curry said.

Personal drones and wildfires

Though drones may have a future in fire detection, Curry discouraged people from taking their own drones to wildfire scenes to collect pictures and video.

Curry said they are illegal over most wildfire scenes, which generally have temporary flight restrictions in place.

Those drones also potentially pose a danger to firefighters who are involved in fire suppression from the air, and firefighters shut down their aerial operations when a private drone is spotted, Curry said.

Conditions

Curry said grasses may be green right now, but he echoed the same message circulated by Obama administration officials Tuesday — that the risk for catastrophic wildfires will increase from July through September.

“Ultimately we know this stuff’s all going to dry out,” Curry said.

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