After seven seasons working as a fire watcher — a person who watches for wildfires from a tower — near Peace River, Alta., Trina Moyles has witnessed some of the worst wildfire seasons Canada has seen.
“It’s especially stressful when communities are threatened by fires and you can visibly see the wall of fire advancing,” Moyles said. She is a journalist, photographer and creative producer who published a memoir about her experience there, titled Be careful.
“It feels very helpless, but all you can do is watch the fire and the wind and do your job.”
Last year was Canada’s worst wildfire season. Last December, fire chiefs from across the country went to Ottawa to demand more funding after 9,500 volunteer firefighters leave the job in 2023. The federal government announced $800,000 in additional funding this month to train and hire firefighters, in regular teams for extinguishing fires and fighting forest fires.
Meanwhile, new flame-fighting technologies have received renewed, widespread coverage. Alberta and New Brunswick’s work with AI and the Canadian Space Agency’s dedicated fire monitoring satellite were just some of the newsworthy plans.
Technological developments have been on Moyles’ mind throughout her career.
If it gets people off the towers, advanced technology like drones can eliminate the risk and cost of the job. But Moyles argues that technology can’t fully replace human observers like herself, and the focus on “sexy” technology means they don’t get the support they need.
“There is fear [among lookouts] that these jobs are not being invested in or supported the way they should be,” she said.
Kimberly Jackson looks through binoculars in this undated photo. She is one of six wildfire observers featured in Fire Tower, Tova Krentzman’s upcoming documentary. (Submitted by Tova Krenzman)
This Krenzman is the director of fire tower, documentary premiering on HotDocs on April 29. It traces the experiences of six observers in this unique line of work. She has gotten to know the watchers since she worked as a cook at a “forest fire camp” in 2020, and can also see their concern.
Krenzman pointed out that most of Canada no longer uses human observers and “in today’s world, AI and technology, it’s a big topic in general. I think it’s on everyone’s mind, right?’
Why are we still hiring people to watch wildfires?
Fire watchers are responsible for watching for the first signs of a forest fire and reporting them. They spend four to six months (the length of the wildfire season) living alone in remote locations and watching the horizon.
According to Krenzman, Alberta has 100 fire towers with lookouts. The Yukon has five, the Northwest Territories has three and British Columbia has one.
Between 2006 and 2021, observers like Moyles detected about 30 percent of Alberta’s wildfires. Ground patrols detected 17 percent and air patrols 11 percent. The only type that beats surveillance is “unplanned” detection (phone calls from the public, for example), at 42 percent.
The key to the job is sharp eyes. Moyles said observers can detect wildfires when they are as small as 0.01 hectares, and catching them early is “critical” to wildfire response.
The work of the watch does not stop after they have reported a fire; they are also a tool to help coordinate the response. Observers can communicate with other towers to triangulate a location or keep in touch with the fire manager about weather conditions or fire growth, for example.
The poster for Fire Tower, Krenzman’s documentary premiering on HotDocs on April 29. (Submitted by Tova Krenzman.)
After a season watching the horizon, you’re bound to catch things that other people wouldn’t notice, Moyles explained. Those who return to the program year after year are known as “lifers.”
Krenzman, the director, recalled how one observer in the Yukon was “so serious and diligent about looking for smoke.”
“Everybody knows in Dawson City [that] he’s there and they feel safer because of it,” she said.
How drones and sensors compare to humans
Alberta has the most lookouts remaining of any province — about 100 in total, according to Kretzman.
But Alberta’s most recent Wildfire Review (2019) recommended looking for alternatives to the watch grid for cost and safety reasons.
Drones and sensors detect wildfires “basically, just like a human,” said Yumin Zhang, an engineering professor at Concordia University who is researching how to use drones to manage wildfires.
According to Zhang, drones are an attractive solution because they are mobile, low cost, quick to respond and do not require a pilot. A human doesn’t even have to control them, Zhang said, because AI can be trained to do it automatically.
Moyles appreciates the way new technologies complement the observer’s work. But she said many people make “the assumption that [lookouts] will be out of a job” with the advent of new technologies.
In some cases, even if we want to replace all observers, the technology is still not good enough.
Last year, Alberta tested six systems that use a combination of cameras, sensors, AI and machine learning to detect wildfires. The human observer beat all technologies for the highest detection rate.
Jackson looks through binoculars in this undated photo. (Submitted by Tova Krenzman)
Zhang said there are still some challenges with drones as well. Their battery life is limited, they need better sensors for night detection, and the AI isn’t advanced enough to make them as smart as a human.
However, he said it is developing at a rapid pace because people feel pressured by the onset of climate change. If this continues, he suspects it will eventually become much better than humans.
Researchers in a different part of the wildfire response system have found that AI can now match humans.
Alberta is using AI to predict where wildfires might start, and Graham Erickson, senior lead developer of machine learning at AltaML, a private AI development firm, said experienced officers have found that the AI ”just agrees with their intuition “.
Still, Erikson always expected that he would work alongside people, “not replace people.”
“Human intuition enters into the context of understanding,” Erikson said. “[The AI] a lot of context is missing, but that’s partly on purpose. We don’t want programs to make all the decisions.”
For Moyles, that’s for the best.
“Technology has its role, but technology is a tool, and ultimately it’s a person who makes the decision about how to use that technology,” she said. “So we really need to invest in staff and people.”
Jackson climbs a fire tower in this undated photo. According to Krenzman, rangers can spend 10 to 12 hours on the summit each day, depending on the day’s fire risk. (Submitted by Tova Krenzman)
