A team of Utah educators is looking to help prevent wildfires in the state by installing remote, wildfire-monitoring cameras in the coming years.
A team at the Utah Education Network (UEN) and University of Utah, partnering with a number of Utah agencies, have received a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior to build the wildfire-monitoring network.
Their goal is to improve wildfire detection, management, modeling, and safeguards through rapid response and research using live video feeds and artificial intelligence.
Cameras for monitoring wildfires are scarce in Utah, according to Joe Breen, a senior IT architect for the U’s Center for High Performance Computing.
With Utah experiencing 1,146 wildfires in 2025, burning a total of 164,707 acres, experts in the estate are trying to help.
“Our BLM colleagues told us when wildfire crews came to Utah last year to support the Monroe Canyon Fire and the France Canyon Fire that they didn’t have as much visibility as surrounding states due to the lack of cameras,” said Jeff Egly, associate director for research support and strategic partnerships for UEN and a principal investigator for the project.
