123 change and have big fires,” Penha said. “In 2019, we sent planes to Sweden, one of the countries that we never expected to have problems with forest fires. That’s the way things are now.” Drought and winds continue to plague forests in South America, as they do in Europe. In March 2023, ANEPC sent a team to Chile as the country was dealing with several big fires during its summer months. Portugal’s firefighters arrived equipped with the command-and-control system on smartphones. The 140 firefighters used QuickCapture to collect images and share information. In Portugal, the summer of 2022 was difficult. Fires burned from July through October, inflicting widespread damage. Hundreds of people were injured, and hundreds of structures were destroyed. The military was called to help with firefighting. In preparation for summer 2023, ANEPC developed AI workflows to help determine where best to apply its resources. Teams anticipated a need to battle between 80 and 120 forest fires a day. “The number of fires will certainly not be fewer, and we won’t have more firefighters,” Penha said in advance. “We’ll have some new sensors on our reconnaissance airplanes that will give us more information and we have to do a rapid analysis of it. We’re always moving volunteers and firefighters from the coast to the interior of the country and from the south to the north. If we don’t have timely evidence, the places in need won’t have firefighters.” Public Safety The Emergency and Civil Protection Special Force (FEPC) uses the data that is collected to work on the lines. A shared map helps local command oversee and plan wildfire operations
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA2NTE0Mw==