Sonoma County’s new fire-detection camera helps pinpoint Geyserville blaze

High-definition view from Geyser Peak helped firefighters quickly get to site of 1-acre fire.|

A light gray column of smoke rising above the trees in northern Sonoma County Tuesday led a Highway 101 motorist to call 911, reporting smoke near “the ridge of the Geysers,” a Cal Fire official said.

Local firefighters who know the roads and ridges well eventually would have found the source of the smoke, but a new fire-detection camera installed two weeks ago on Geyser Peak gave Cal Fire officials an immediate view of the thin column rising in the afternoon.

With Cal Fire dispatchers adjusting the angle of the camera - installed by Sonoma County sheriff's staff Oct. 4 - from the communications center in St. Helena, Battalion Chief Marshall Turbeville viewed the live video on his cellphone, already in his truck looking for the fire.

“I was in a valley and the fire was in the next valley, so I couldn't see the smoke,” Turbeville said. “The camera helped get everyone in the right direction.”

Cal Fire communication operator Shelly Fontes said the dispatch center often receives reports of smoke seen by people who are traveling the roads or highways and can't give an accurate location of the smoke.

“You try to put yourself where they are, but you're not seeing what they're seeing,” Fontes said. “So it's nice to have the cameras.”

Within minutes, Turbeville and other firefighters found fire burning in vegetation off Pocket Ranch Road.

Tuesday's fire, reported about 3:50 p.m., was held to about 1 acre by crews on the ground and the quick response from the helitack team based on Boggs Mountain in Lake County. The fire's spread also was slowed by two roads and lush blackberry brush. No structures on the private ranch were damaged, Turbeville said.

Live video feeds from the region's fire detection cameras can be viewed at www.alertwild fire.org/northbay.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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