Alberta investing in AI that predicts where wildfires may ignite

Alberta is investing in AI in an effort to predict where a wildfire may ignite before it happens, a move its tech partners say could save up to $5 million a year.

Alberta is investing in artificial intelligence in an effort to predict where a wildfire may ignite before it happens, a move its tech partners say could save up to $5 million a year.

Ed Trenchard, provincial wildfire management specialist, does long-term planning with communities and industry on how to mitigate risk, and also works on the ground.

“When we have large escaped fires like we had this year, I actually go out to the fires and plan where resources are going (in order) to fight the fires, and inform communities of potential evacuations,” he said.

“In the past and currently, we know what we have for fuels (like trees), we know what’s available to burn, and we know through our weather forecasting how bad the weather is going to be.”

Federal officials have said Canada has seen an unprecedented wildfire season this year, with nearly 179,000 square kilometres burned as of late September, versus the 10-year average of about 2,700 for that time of year. In Alberta this year, fires forced the evacuation of several communities, including Edson and Drayton Valley in the west and Fort Chipewyan in the northeast.

Trenchard said looking at the interaction between the fuels and the weather “kind of” predicts the risk to an area.

“The problem that we’ve been faced with is we don’t know where the next fire is going to start,” he said.

Alberta’s wildfire agency has partnered with software company AltaML to try to predict where fires are going to start the day before they happen so they can better plan resources.