By: Heidi Kwok, Staff Writer
On January 14, the City of Burnaby announced they will be investing in an “autonomous early wildfire detection system” for Burnaby Mountain to address growing wildfire risks amid warmer and drier summers. The Peak interviewed Scott Alleyn, chief staff officer of the Burnaby fire department, for more information.
Alleyn cited past wildfire activity along the Burnaby Mountain corridor as the reason to implement a modernized wildfire detection system. The existing wildfire management system is largely reliant on reports made by the public, which Alleyn said slows down emergency response times. This new technology is meant to expedite the detection of wildfires before they escalate by automatically detecting them. The program was initiated following the recommendations of Miles Ritchie, fire chief for the Burnaby fire department, the City’s mayor and council, and SFU.
SenseNet, a Vancouver-based tech company that offers artificial intelligence (AI)-driven wildfire solutions, will supply the early detection software as part of a $250,000 contract. Their smoke detection cameras and ground sensor nodes are to be integrated into existing firefighting applications within the Burnaby fire department’s communication centre and the City’s emergency operations centre.
“Our city consulted with the City of Vernon, who has completed a two-year trial,” Alleyn said. He revealed that over 200 potential wildfires were detected during the trial, saying, “The technology is proven. It’s just making sure that we integrate it into our communication centre so we can mitigate the situation as quick as we can before it turns into something a lot larger.”
A press release from the City of Burnaby detailed, “Devices will be strategically placed at urban-wildland interface boundaries, evacuation corridors, and near industrial infrastructure such as the Trans Mountain tank farm (Burnaby Terminal) and the Shell Burmount Terminal.” Concerns have been raised for years about the potential safety risks if a wildfire occurred on Burnaby Mountain due to the construction of the tank farm and its limited spacing, which could cause wildfires to spread quickly. The press release noted, “The project will also include installation of a detection system near the Parkland Refinery in North Burnaby.”
“Our camera selection locations are encompassing all of Burnaby [ . . . ] We’re looking at locations throughout Burnaby that give us the best view of Burnaby Mountain, UniverCity, and SFU,” Alleyn said. He told The Peak that the cameras will provide a peripheral view of the mountain in addition to forested areas in Deer Lake Park and Burnaby Lake. “We’re best off having the cameras further away [throughout the city] so that we can see the Burnaby Mountain SFU landscape in its entirety instead of just certain sections of it. So the cameras are positioned so that we can see the whole landscape from north, south, east, west, in its entirety.
“We’ve been experiencing hotter and drier summers historically throughout the recent years,” Alleyn explained.
“We did our research and the reason it’s [the project] being pushed now is because of those early detection capabilities that allow our firefighters to mitigate a situation a lot quicker than what we’ve experienced in the past.”
— Scott Alleyn, Burnaby fire department’s chief staff officer
“It also gives our command staff predictive modelling of the fire’s behaviour so our responding crews can protect critical infrastructure along UniverCity and SFU, and evacuate residents well before the wildfire has the opportunity to spread.”
The system will be fully operational this coming April or May, before the next fire season.
