This Company Will Use Artificial Intelligence To Fight Wildfires

 As wildfires become tougher to control, one company is looking to fight the flames with tech.

Compta Emerging Business is the winner of this year’s Watson Build Competition sponsored by IBM. The Portugal-based company developed a solution that uses its patented spectrometric analysis technology to detect fires automatically within 5 minutes of ignition and within a range of up to 15 kilometers.

“We are bringing artificial intelligence to the game so wildfires can be detected at the earliest stage,” said Vasco Correia, Director of International Business at Compta. “We can detect very early and we can recommend firefighting measures.”

With the data collected by the solution, firefighters know where to place fire barriers based on wind speed and how the fire is evolving.

“The first twenty minutes are absolutely crucial,’ said Correia, adding that this solution is a game-changer in states like California, where more than 170 wildfires spread in October 2017 alone.

For more coverage, watch the video included in this article.