Perched at the front line of California’s fight against wildfires is a 41-year-old named Colby Nicholson and three other roaming MacGyvers in “Alert California” work shirts. On this warm June morning, they were on a cliff 1,500 feet above the vineyards and small towns of Napa Valley. Several major fires had ripped through this area in the past decade.
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By day’s end, there was a 12-foot tripod holding two cameras inside protective globes, powered by solar panels and battery packs. The cameras were connected by satellite Wi-Fi and joined a growing network of nearly 1,300 remote, unblinking eyes on the most fire-prone landscapes of California.
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These are the fire spotters of today — remote, high-tech cameras attached to communication towers, old lookouts or purpose-built tripods on high vantage points. Alert California’s viewpoints have become a vital tool for firefighters and a ubiquitous presence in emergency coverage. Mr. Nicholson and his crew are the ones who put cameras in place and keep them running, so that everyone else can see.
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Since 2023, artificial intelligence has instantly scoured Alert California camera footage, spotting wildfires before a 911 call is received in most cases. Officials then use the camera feeds to monitor the fires, coordinating teams at the scene. Real-time views are available to anyone on the Alert California website, and screen grabs and time-lapse footage help fuel fire incident pages and popular apps like Watch Duty.
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“This system has changed the world of response,” J.C. Greenberg, deputy chief of Napa County Fire Department, said as he watched the Soda Canyon installation. “We have instant visibility and instant information that we need to make response decisions.”