Year after year, forest fires are protagonists of the summer. Although the number of claims has declined slightly in the last decade, 9,500 fires in Spanish forests are still produced every year, according to data from the WWF organization. The prevention is emerging as the best tool to avoid the most extreme accidentsthat leave behind great damage to the natural environment and high costs for its extinction.
In this context, the technology It is a key tool. Therefore, Grocerysubsidiary of Chit dedicated to environmental services, has recently installed a sensor system for The early detection and alert of possible fires, on a mountain in the municipality of Magaña, in the province of Soria.
Early fire detection
The Highland Commonwealth of Soria, a local group of 16 municipalities with more than 65 population centers, has been the driver of This project. “We had executed an adaptation of traditional trails to try to improve prevention in forest fires and We wanted to collaborate with other administrations to implement an effective fire detection system”, Details its president, José Ramón Ruiz Sastre.
Detail of one of the sensors installed to prevent fires.
The initiative has led to the installation of 115 Sensors in a Public mount in the Alhama Valley to complement existing fire prevention and extinction systems. The devices have been developed by the start-up Dryad in collaboration with the company Stihl.
These sensors, explains Héctor Hernández Romero, Head of Service of Talher in Soria, detect “changes in the parameters previously registered in the systemwhich report that there is a fire. ”These are the air pressure and quality, temperature and humidity.
A Talher operator installs one of the sensors.
The data is analyzed by an AI system that allows detect a fire in the first 60 minuteswhen it is still latent and is easier to extinguish. It is a considerable advantage over other systems such as Surveillance camerasthat take up to three hours to identify a fire, or the satelliteswhich can take several days, when the fire has already spread. time is an essential factor in fire extinction. “If a fire is attacked before two hours, it is easier for it to suffocate. But if that limit passes it can become uncontrollable, ”says Talher’s Head of Service.
According to Hernández, in the tests carried out by Talher, the system detects fires in minutes: “We did a drill and since we started until the first alarm jumped They passed around 25 minutes”The operation is simple, the sensors send a signal to three reception systems, placed in strategic points of the mountain, and these Transmit unk warning so much as to the Commonwealth of Altas Lands de Soria and the Provincial Command Center, the main fire operation in this province.
Also, this innovative sensor system generates Real -time risk mapsfacilitating a faster and more effective response. Before doing the installation, a study of where fires could be generated and, above all, what factors could produce them. “Obviously, the most important is the human factor”, Says Hernández. Until the 95% of fires are due to this causewhether caused or by negligence and accidents. Therefore, the sensors are They concentrate mainly in the busiest areas: along the main rural road that crosses the mountain (there is a sensor every 20 meters, approximately), at points of high ecological and tourist value, such as a Centenary oak, and in areas close to crops.
Location of the sensors in Magaña.
Natural environment protection
He natural environment is one of the main resources from the area of the highlands of Soria. This site, specifically, is a public mountain that has diverse vegetation such as “complaints, oaks, holm oaks, and shrub species,” explains the president of the Commonwealth. Although, fortunately, In the municipality of Magaña fires are not frequentthe increase in temperatures and repeated droughts because of climate change have increased in recent years the risk of fire in forest masses such as this.
Give Commitment to environmental protection through initiatives like this. The prevention It remains the best strategy for forest protection. And thanks to new technologies, it is already possible foresee and stop the fires more efficiently and quickly.
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