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As the state of Oregon prepares for an above normal fire season, the Oregon Hazards Lab is using AI-integrated cameras to expand early wildfire detection across the state.
OHAZ, which uses science, data collection and research to monitor natural hazards in the Pacific Northwest, has over 70 AI-integrated cameras mounted across the state that allow firefighters and first responders to respond faster to wildfires.
The cameras perform a 360 degree turn every two minutes, as, OHAZ Associate Director of Research and Development Nick Maggio, said, it takes a panorama image of the landscape.
The images are then sent to the lab’s vendor, AlertWest, where they are processed through an AI algorithm and displayed on the site’s public website.
According to Maggio, the AI algorithm is designed to look for smoke during the day and thermal anomalies at night. If a potential fire is flagged by the technology, it is verified by two human reviewers before being sent to emergency personnel.
“(When) the fire agencies receive this message, it has an image of the fire, it has the geolocation of the fire and it’s got a link to the camera so they can jump on and see in real time what’s happening with this particular fire and then they can respond accordingly,” Maggio said.
In an email statement to The Daily Emerald, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue Chief David Jensen said the cameras “dramatically” improved the department’s ability to assess and respond to incidents as they are happening.
“Throughout our partnership conversations, we’ve emphasized how this advanced detection technology empowers us to anticipate challenges rather than simply react to them, which is especially valuable in hard-to-monitor regions,” Jensen said.
In May, Google gifted $250,000 to UO to expand wildfire detection in the Columbia River Gorge, where the Rowena Fire burned more than 3,600 acres and destroyed homes in Wasco County in 2025.
According to Maggio, Google and the lab are paying particular attention to the region because winds in the Columbia River Gorge pick up and spread fire easily.
“This was a way for (Google) to have an impact because they recognized that wildfire was a threat to the health and the livelihood of the people in their community,” Maggio said.
Google opened a data center in The Dalles, Ore., in 2006, and today operates five centers in 2006 and now operates five centers in the region with a sixth expected to open in 2026.
OHAZ Director Leland O’Driscoll said that while the AI technology makes the detection process more efficient, it is only one part of a “complete package” that makes the cameras function.
According to O’Driscoll, OHAZ is responsible for securing permits and developing the cameras, as well as the cybersecurity operations, data connections, sending the images to AlertWest and monitoring the functionality of the cameras.
“We also play a heavy role on the back end of all of that. Once the product is available, then we train the fire agencies, along with AlertWest, on how to best use it and coordinate the resource amongst the wide variety of fire professionals in the region,” O’Driscoll said.
The cameras are equipped with privacy measures to protect residents who may live within a camera’s line of sight. According to Maggio, before a camera goes live, a masking layer is added to all “built environments.”
“If there’s a house, for example, that you can see within the camera views, we mask that out and that gets done at the hardware level in the camera, so that data never transits a network,” Maggio said. “That’s one of the steps that we take to make sure that we try and strike that right balance between privacy and security.”
According to O’Driscoll, in addition to alerting fire agencies of a potential wildfire, the data is also collected and stored for later research, which, O’Driscoll said, aligns with the framework of Oregon Rising.
“We are purpose built to work on environmental resilience as a focal point of what we do. We collect novel data that observe the environment. So it both has practical applications for current research and current hazard monitoring, but also future long term climate change type monitoring,” O’Driscoll said.
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