CAL Fire AI tool shares real-time data helping people prepare for wild fires
jose.romo
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) — A new AI chatbot is looking to bridge the information gap when it comes to wildfires. CAL Fire is saying additional tools on their website are providing people with real-time information. Concern for potential wildfires might not be at the forefront of people’s minds when they look out their window and see a cloudy afternoon.
“As we can hear the radio traffic in the background, we’re still getting fires daily.”
CAL Fire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira says cool weather might fool people into believing fire risk is low. He urges people to stay informed about potential fire risk. Adding a new tool might help.
CAL fire says this AI chatbot will help people be better prepared by allowing them to receive information about previous fires and current incidents.
“You get near real-time information if there is an active incident in your area, with where the evacuation zones that are currently affected are, and where shelters are going to be located.”
Silveira says within five to ten minutes, they are able to put out information on fire acreage, damage, and containment. He adds that people can use the chatbot to see if their neighborhood is fire-prone.
“It’s going to do a really quick and thorough query over any past history of fires in that area, what those fires did, what the fires’ names were, things like that, so that people could be as informed as possible and have it in a user interface that they’re already relatively familiar with.”
Some, like William, are just now hearing about the tool. “Sobre esa herramienta uno puede estar más preparado,” he says this tool will help him be more prepared as one never knows when fire help will be necessary. Others, like Paul Kampe prefer to follow CAL Fires suggestions and directly call 9-11 in a case of a fire, directly putting them in danger.
“I don’t know what else we can do other than just be alert to anything that looks like it could be a problem and call 9- 1-1, get the info out there. so they get the right people out here.”
The chatbot is now available on CAL Fire’s website, providing real-time data to people in hopes of preventing future major fires.