Could tech replace firefighters in the battle against wildfires?

FireTracking’s cameras are currently surveying a million hectares, mainly in France.

The cost? In the French département of Indre-et-Loire, the company has installed 11 detection sites.

“In all €1.2m [$1.4m; £1m] was spent to cover the whole 6,000 sq km area [2,300 sq miles],” says Chaudier.

It is mainly agricultural land. Crop fires are a huge and expensive problem with some 300 a year in this département alone, Chaudier says.

AI fire detection is going to get better over the coming years. The French civil protection service has a programme called Condor, for example, which is testing solar-powered drones that carry out continuous patrols with electro-optical cameras and AI.

There are also projects with sensors placed among the trees. Spain’s SenForFire, for example, which measures gases released before flames become visible.

As for drones, firefighter Guillaume Millet says they’re being tested in France for sea rescue, dropping lifebuoys and survival kits, but there’s no drone tech that’s reached that stage yet for firefighting.

“In fact, the usefulness of technology is very limited in this area,” Millet says. “It can help us with detection but it’s not technology that puts out fires; you need people to pull the hoses through the forest to attack them.”

Not even aircraft can replace that, he says.

“When a Canadair drops 6,000 litres of water on a wildfire it reduces its intensity but then firefighters on the ground have to finish what the Canadair started.”

The French are also getting used to the sight of Dash planes that spray fire retardant (ammonium phosphate in the form of an orange powder) in front of the flames to prevent the vegetation from catching fire too quickly.

But again, that’s no substitute for the brawn and water brought by troops on the ground.

Not yet, at least.