Xcel Energy is asking the Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners for approval to install a new Pano AI fire detection camera at the Thomasville Communications Site, about 27 miles from Basalt via Frying Pan Road. 

The camera would be the sixth AI-powered wildfire detection camera on top of Pitkin County-owned telecommunication towers. Four of those were funded by an intergovernmental agreement between the country and several local stakeholders, including the Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority. The fifth was privately funded for local fire agencies and the county. 

Pano AI operates cameras that can scan a 360° territory and detect potential smoke signatures from 10 miles away. When a Pano AI camera detects possible smoke, it gets analyzed by Pano’s AI algorithms and verified by analysts at Pano AI. In one instance this summer, a Pano AI camera helped detect a fire in Maroon Creek Wilderness. The fire was located and extinguished quickly. 

Pano AI reached out to the county earlier this summer after Xcel Energy expressed an interest in having a camera in the Thomasville location. According to BOCC documents from Wednesday’s Regular Session, the utility provider has a “vested interest” in wildfire detection and prevention near their high-voltage power lines in the area. 

The benefits would also extend beyond utility protection, according to former Aspen Fire Chief Rick Balentine.

“(Pano) always consults heavily with community stakeholders to find the best location for cameras that benefit the valley,” Balentine told The Aspen Times. “Multiple cameras help triangulate fires faster and more accurately. (The Thomasville Telecommunication site) is not a highly populated area, so more cameras means more eyes in these places.” 

According to Drew Petersen, interim telecommunications director at Pitkin County, Pitkin County’s telecommunications towers offer an attractive location to install these types of cameras for a variety of reasons. 

“Towers are attractive because of height, they are good geographic vantage points, they have grid power or backup power, and are reliable, continuously operated sites,” Petersen said.  “Additionally, they are data-connected for Pano to operate their AI-systems on.”

The cameras would be installed at no cost to the county but would draw on Pitkin County power that is supplied to the telecommunications tower. The lease outlines a five-year term with the opportunity to renew for an additional five, five-year terms. 

The Board of County Commissioners — Patti Clapper, Kelly McNicholas Kury, and Jeffrey Woodruff, with Greg Poschman and Francie Jacober absent — unanimously moved the resolution forward. 

A second reading on the resolution is scheduled in early November.