The camera used to gather information on that Eagle Point fire has only been in service for about a month.
Through the video from that camera Jackson County Fire District 3 knew that the Eagle Point fire was a structure fire before they arrived at the scene.
The cameras are able to detect smoke and fire sometimes before 911 can be called.
They can even detect open burning on days where it isn’t allowed.
Fire District 3 Chief Robert Horton said, “the key of this intelligence is to identify fires early, so we can get resources out and extinguish them while they’re small.”
The Long Mountain camera has already identified four fires over the last month.
The Rogue Valley Council of Governments partnered with local fire districts to install the cameras for days like Thursday.
There are already three alert wildfire cameras working in Southern Oregon and there are plans for almost a dozen more to be installed.
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