RIVERSIDE – (INT) - Scientists at the University of California are developing some offensives to combat the state’s worsening wildfires.

It’s been announced they are working on more than 100 innovative projects.

• UC Riverside is ensuring first responders stay connected with wide area mobile communication and robust social media platforms when cellular service goes down in a disaster. The campus is also using virtual and augmented reality to aid firefighting operations and training.

• UC San Diego’s swiveling infrared cameras can detect fires 80 miles away and send images to officials in the crucial early minutes of a wildfire. Since cameras were installed in fire-prone San Diego County in 2017, no fire-related fatalities have been reported. The goal is to install 900 of these devices around the state.

• UC Santa Cruz and other campuses have developed Internet of Things-connected mini- weather stations to detect wildfires upon ignition. The solar-powered smart devices cost as little as $200.

• UC Berkeley is developing data-gathering drones to predict a fire’s path and exploring giant air scrubbers to suck smoke-filled air from the sky.


The research comes on the heels of the state’s ongoing spate of fires.

• From 1972–2018, Calif. experienced a fivefold increase in annual burned area.

• Calif. tops the list of states most at wildfire risk with more than 2 million vulnerable structures.

• The 10 costliest fires in U.S. history have all been in Calif.; six have occurred in the past three years.

• Of America’s 10 most destructive fires in terms of structures lost, seven have occurred in the past four years — all in Calif.

• California’s deadliest wildfire was 2018’s Camp Fire, which killed 85 people.

UC Berkeley professor of computer engineering Tarek Zohdi founded the school’s Fire Research Group to encourage collaboration between firefighters, mechanical engineers, physicists, roboticists and other experts. He calls the group a “SWAT team.”

“There isn’t going to be a silver bullet,” he said. “It has to be a concerted effort and so people are definitely thinking outside the box.”

Story Date: November 20, 2019