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U.S. Forest Service Explores RFID's Ability to Detect Fires
For the burn test, located on land used by Los Angeles County's Pitchess Detention Center, the Southern California team employed 14 sensors covering a total of approximately 1.5 acres (about two sensors per acre). Two unburned sensors were recovered. The preliminary analysis, Gonzales says, suggests the trio achieved positive results, measured by the ability to achieve specific temperatures and collect data.
While there are several ways in which to distribute the sensors—laid on the ground, or tossed from a low-flying plane or helicopter into heavily wooded areas—for the Castaic test, each sensor was hung from a tree, according to Kimberly Gray, Naniq Systems' director of RFID-IT logistics. Gray helped implement the system for the site's test burn.
The gateway, which is powered by a battery and coated with a special resin to protect it against the elements, supports WAN connections through multiple interfaces, including GSM data, GPRS, 3G and Wi-Fi. The device performs a self-diagnostic test to establish communications protocols.
"It took four minutes after the fire was set during the Castaic site test before the first sensor transmitted a signal to the gateway," says Brent Chapel, ProximaRF's CEO, who estimates that a fire burning for six hours costs about $2 million. "If we're able to get the firefighters to the scene within half an hour, we can hold the size of the fire to seven acres."
Chapel estimates that the PFDS platform would cost $14,000 per square mile to deploy. Based on information received from the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, Chapel believes the return on investment far outweighs the expense. Statistics from the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, he says, reveal that the total cost of fire damage reached $2,082 per acre in 2007, or about $1,332,000 per square mile. That total takes into account the length of time gateways and sensors either remain dormant or are used under normal conditions.
Most wildfires are already out of control by the time firefighters can detect them. For that reason, the threat of fire has been a major safety issue for years, especially on the 18,000 acres of land surrounding Malibu, Calif., and for the homeowners who live in that area. The current method of predicting possible threats in that neighborhood, Gray says, consists of firefighters stationed at watch sites, looking through binoculars to monitor what is taking place in and around the coastal community.
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While there are several ways in which to distribute the sensors—laid on the ground, or tossed from a low-flying plane or helicopter into heavily wooded areas—for the Castaic test, each sensor was hung from a tree, according to Kimberly Gray, Naniq Systems' director of RFID-IT logistics. Gray helped implement the system for the site's test burn.
The gateway, which is powered by a battery and coated with a special resin to protect it against the elements, supports WAN connections through multiple interfaces, including GSM data, GPRS, 3G and Wi-Fi. The device performs a self-diagnostic test to establish communications protocols.
"It took four minutes after the fire was set during the Castaic site test before the first sensor transmitted a signal to the gateway," says Brent Chapel, ProximaRF's CEO, who estimates that a fire burning for six hours costs about $2 million. "If we're able to get the firefighters to the scene within half an hour, we can hold the size of the fire to seven acres."
Most wildfires are already out of control by the time firefighters can detect them. For that reason, the threat of fire has been a major safety issue for years, especially on the 18,000 acres of land surrounding Malibu, Calif., and for the homeowners who live in that area. The current method of predicting possible threats in that neighborhood, Gray says, consists of firefighters stationed at watch sites, looking through binoculars to monitor what is taking place in and around the coastal community.
