Spotting Wildfires Could Become Easier. Here’s How.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/california-wildfires-cameras.html

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Last week, I wrote about how scientists at U.C. San Diego have gone from trying to merely understand that climate change is happening, to producing research that tells us what to do about it.

That was just before state fire investigators officially concluded that Pacific Gas & Electric equipment had sparked the devastating Camp Fire — a blaze that experts have said became the state’s deadliest in large part because of the speed with which it spread.

Cal Fire estimated that at one point, flames were consuming the equivalent of a football field each second. Ultimately, it would kill 85 people and destroy 18,804 structures.

As you might imagine, figuring out how to prevent or slow such racing infernos — which are becoming more frequent as fire season stretches — has become a major focus for those U.C.S.D. researchers.

Recently, I talked to Neal Driscoll, a professor there who’s helping head a program aimed at finding new blazes earlier, called ALERTWildfire.

Basically, it’s a network of high-def cameras placed on mountaintops, which firefighters can use to pan, tilt and zoom to get a better look at smoke plumes or flames.

“These cameras are really important for 911 confirmation, situational awareness,” Mr. Driscoll told me. “And in the worst cases, as the fire explodes, we have a way to sequence evacuations.”

He’s a seismologist first, so the idea for the cameras started with efforts by Mr. Driscoll and his colleagues at the University of Nevada at Reno to find sites for earthquake monitoring.

It turned out that much of the work installing those monitors — plus the microwave technology used to transmit the data they gathered — was also useful for the fire cameras.

“My colleague Graham Kent had the great idea of, well, if we have this remote communications network by microwave that’s really resilient, let’s hang as many instruments on it as we can,” Mr. Driscoll said.

Right now, 171 cameras have been installed in remote areas around the state. The plan is to get roughly 100 more installed this year.

Ben Nicholls, a Cal Fire division chief in Wine Country, said he’s seen firsthand how the cameras work. And, speaking for his unit, he said one of those devices is “worth its weight in gold.”

He described a situation recently when one caller reported seeing smoke. Typically, Mr. Nicholls said, firefighters will field multiple calls reporting a fire, so it was tough to get a read on the situation.

Mr. Nicholls said firefighters were able to aim two of the wildfire cameras in the region of what turned out to be a small blaze. Knowing exactly where the smoke was prevented firefighters from driving around wasting valuable time.

Still, Mr. Driscoll said the cameras were not an early detection system; it still relied on humans to spot smoke.

“Right now, artificial intelligence doesn’t beat the 911 call,” he said.

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• President Trump stormed out of an infrastructure meeting with Democratic congressional leaders after three minutes on Wednesday, lashing out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing him of a cover-up. Ms. Pelosi has been encouraging her colleagues to hold off on impeachment, but the incident didn’t help. [The New York Times]

• For the first time, three Asian-American and Pacific Islanders are seeking a major party’s nomination for president, including Senator Kamala Harris, whose mother was Tamil Indian. But only Andrew Yang has made his Asian ethnicity a centerpiece of his campaign. [The New York Times]

• Gov. Gavin Newsom, in announcing his new task force on homelessness, insisted he’s serious about making a dent in the crisis — not just hand-wringing. To do that, he said, the task force will focus on scaling up solutions that have worked. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

• And the crisis is dire: Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland recently celebrated the opening of a development of 28 affordable homes. There were 4,000 applicants to live there. [Curbed San Francisco]

• An R.V. camp outside Google’s Mountain View headquarters has become a potent symbol of the Bay Area’s vast, tech-fueled inequality. Mountain View wants to get rid of it. [Bloomberg]

• The San Francisco police ratcheted up a widely criticized investigation into a freelance journalist who got a leaked police report about the death of the city’s longtime public defender. Department officials said the journalist, Bryan Carmody, was a suspected “co-conspirator” in the “theft” of the document. [The New York Times]

• A rare Corpse Lily, whose scent has been described as “worse than roadkill,” is set to bloom at Cal State Long Beach. Its name is Phil. [Long Beach Post]

• Tanya Saracho, the showrunner for “Vida,” a boundary-breaking Starz drama set in East Los Angeles, talks about writing California Spanglish for characters of different generations and colorism in TV. [The New York Times]

• “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, debuted at Cannes. Manohla Dargis, The Times critic, wrote that it’s “a moving film, at once a love letter — and a dream — of the Hollywood that was.” [The New York Times]

• Dave Chappelle, W. Kamau Bell and others rallied in an effort to save the Punch Line, a San Francisco comedy club that’s slated to lose its lease in August to make way for a new tenant, which a city official identified as Google. The club has helped launch the careers of a slew of comedians, including Jon Stewart, Margaret Cho, Amy Schumer and Ali Wong. [The San Francisco Examiner]

Nahnatchka Khan, creator of the show “Fresh Off the Boat” and the director of the Netflix rom-com “Always Be My Maybe,” will sit down with Times reporter Sopan Deb to talk about diversity, making it in the entertainment industry and comedy at the San Francisco Public Library on May 28. [RSVP Here]

Three more wealthy parents pleaded guilty in the college admission fraud case on Wednesday, bringing the total number who’ve agreed to admit to the charges to 14. And there are 19 more, like the actress Lori Loughlin, who plan to fight, but could still be convicted.

That’s a lot of potential clients for Justin Paperny, the co-founder of Calabasas-based White Collar Advice.

Los Angeles Magazine reported that Mr. Paperny, a former Bear Stearns stockbroker who served 18 months behind bars at the private prison in Taft, helps guide “well-heeled convicts” through the prison system.

For a six-figure fee, he’ll help clients figure out which prison would best fit their needs, or how they should manage their business from the inside.

He told the magazine that he tells clients, “This experience doesn’t have to be a waste.”

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Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.