Technology helping firefighters gain containment of Lake Fire

Technology is helping crews battle the Lake Fire burning near Los Olivos.

“It’s an exciting time in fire history when it comes to mapping fires and just the fire service in general with the technology we have,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Scott Safechuck.

U.S. Forest Service officials say this is a good way for them to see what the fire is actively doing.

Safechuck says mapping of the fire is important.

“Drones, rotary aircraft like our helicopters, we have fixed-winged aircraft, and we also walk the fire with GPS. There are different ways to use GPS infrared technology to see where there’s hot spots and we send that information to our mapping department and then they put it on a map for us to see,” Safechuck said.

Captain Safechuck says one of the newer technologies is called FIRIS.

“It comes in above 10,000 feet above any aerial operations that are going on and it can give us real-time feedback. They’re videoing it, it's infrared, and they can do different contrasts in it. We can get an accurate depiction of the size of the fire and anything that’s gone outside the line, real-time feedback to our phones,” Safechuck said.

Matt Ahearn with the U.S. Forest Service says drones with infrared cameras help relay information to fire officials and don’t pose a safety risk since there are no pilots.

“You don’t have exposure to human life and so its non-piloted so there’s a ton of opportunity in rapid will time information to ourselves and the public,” Ahearn said.

“They fly to look for heat sources. They’re detecting them and giving them to ground crews. The ground crews are seeing the progression as they move then relay into our maps our digital sources,” Ahearn said.

The planes highlight areas most at risk and give crews another view of where the fire is moving.

“They’re coming over with infrared cameras and providing immediate rapid camera footage of the permiters of the fire,” Ahearn said.

The fire as of Saturday night was 19 percent contained and had burned 37,872 acres.