Pano AI

It was April 7, a Red Flag day in one of the worst droughts Georgia has seen in years. A Pano station picked up smoke near China Hill in Telfair County and pinpointed the location before anyone in the area called it in. Georgia Forestry Commission rangers saw the alert, assessed the smoke from the camera's real-time visuals, and moved their Telfair crew to respond — roughly 30 minutes ahead of the first report from a landowner. Despite 22 mph wind gusts and bone-dry fuels, first responders held the fire to 40 acres just three hours later. Two weeks later, Georgia declared a state of emergency and GFC issued its first-ever burn ban across the lower half of the state. As the season intensified, the agency leaned on Pano more and more to inform its response. "After we started turning all [burn] permits off, everything Pano detected was an automatic response from us," said GFC Forest Ranger Adam Rainwater. "Pano definitely was a great tool to have during this challenging time." This is Pano's first fire season in Georgia, and one of the most demanding in the state's history. Thank you Georgia Forestry Commission rangers for your tireless work throughout.

"There are no street corners in the forest." That's how Arizona Public Service - APS's director of forestry and fire mitigation, Scott Bordenkircher , described the hardest part of wildfire response — on WBUR's On Point, which spent a full hour this week on how AI is making a real difference in one of the toughest wildfire seasons in years. Most coverage of wildfire AI stops at speed. This episode got at something media rarely covers: the value isn't just how fast you know, it's how precisely you know. In the middle of a forest, there's no landmark to reference. Crews can see smoke on the horizon and still not know if it's a mile away or five. That uncertainty costs time before anyone even starts driving toward it. Arizona Public Service (APS) stood out as a leader on this. Bordenkircher described 55 Pano AI cameras across their territory that triangulate exact location and send responders real terrain and size information before anyone arrives on scene. The speed follows from that precision: dispatch notifications beating 9-1-1 calls by 5 to 25 minutes — sometimes there's no call at all. At least 17 states are now experimenting with AI wildfire tools, and the pattern in this episode is the same one we keep seeing: the fire seasons are getting worse, and the old playbook — wait for a 9-1-1 call, guess at the location, send people in — isn't built for that reality anymore. Closing that gap takes more than good intentions. It takes utilities and fire agencies willing to adopt new tools before the worst case, not after. Curious how others in utilities and fire management are thinking about closing that gap — link to the full episode in the comments. #WildfireDetection #Utilities

Getting ahead of fire season starts with getting in the room together. On June 4, we hosted Oregon Preparedness Day at the World Forestry Center in Portland — a half-day, peer-driven gathering with leaders from BLM, NIFC, USFS, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, NWS, Oregon Dept. of Forestry, Oregon State Fire Marshal, Clackamas Co. Disaster Management, Clackamas Fire, Estacada Rural Fire District, and Warm Springs Fire & Safety — hosted alongside our technology partner, Portland General Electric. The goal was simple: strengthen relationships, trade insights from the field, and align on the technology and partnerships that will shape the 2026 fire season and beyond. A few themes carried the day: 🔥 Connecting detection with prediction — pairing rapid situational awareness with predictive spread modeling to help agencies plan, coordinate, and respond faster. 🗺️ Less context-switching — layering the parcel and land-ownership data agencies already trust directly into a single map view. 🔗 Interoperability — Oregon's federal, state, and local agencies run on a patchwork of tools, and there's a real appetite for technology that connects them rather than adding to the pile. 📦 New products for new missions 🌤️ Weather as a first-class signal — NWS attendees pushed for direct, in-platform links to Fire Weather Zone Forecasts, keeping that context one click away. We also shared what's shipping for agencies this season — from enhanced alert routing and industrial site overlays to satellite thermal hotspot data, aircraft tracking, and predictive modeling integrations. And we made time for what grounds all of it: a conversation with Oregon Wildland Firefighter Foundation President Sam Pearcy on the human cost of this work, and the families the Foundation supports. Serving those who serve is core to how we build. Thank you to every agency and partner who made the trip — the conversations from June 4 are already shaping what we build next. Want the full recap? Drop a comment or head to our landing page in the comments and we'll send it your way. 👇 #WildfirePreparedness #FireSeason2026 #PublicSafety #Oregon

Wildfire has become an executive priority for utilities across the nation, and the technology landscape built to address it has never been more robust. This Thursday, join Pano and our peers Technosylva, Rhizome, Overstory, and eSmart Systems for a live webinar on building integrated wildfire technology programs. You'll hear from utility leaders at Arizona Public Service - APS, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., as well as policy and subject matter experts. Thank you Smart Electric Power Alliance for hosting! 📅 Register now: https://lnkd.in/egC_9z2b #WildfireRisk #UtilityResilience #WildfireTechnology #ElectricUtilities

From grid hardening to AI-powered situational awareness and vegetation management, utilities are fundamentally changing how wildfire risk is managed. What does that mean for insurers and how underwriters asses risk? Excited to moderate this discussion at the Aspen Wildfire Insurance Summit with Anne Sherwood of CORE Electric Cooperative and Michael Haydon of Xcel Energy on how utilities are approaching wildfire resilience, leveraging new technologies, and measuring the impact of those investments. #Wildfire #Insurance #Utilities #Resilience #RiskManagement #ClimateTech #CriticalInfrastructure #Energy Pano AI

Today is National Wildland Firefighter Day. To every wildland firefighter and support professional out there: thank you. Our mission exists to support yours. #ItTakesAllOfUs #NationalWildlandFirefighterDay #WildfireDetection

Active wildfires across the West underscore the immediate operational threat that extreme weather poses to infrastructure. Yet this reality is no longer confined to traditional borders—wildfire mitigation has become a defining national challenge, reshaping how the grid is planned, monitored, and operated across the country. Join SEPA on July 9 at 2:00 PM ET for our upcoming webinar: From Risk to Readiness: How Utilities are Building Integrated Wildfire Technology Programs. Utilities are moving beyond standalone tools and toward more integrated approaches that connect data, operations, and decision-making in real time. What does it take to make that shift, and what are leading organizations doing differently today? Hear perspectives from every seat at the table: Arizona Public Service - APS, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., NARUC, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Overstory, eSmart Systems, Technosylva, Pano AI, Rhizome, and The Ad Hoc Group. Link to register: https://lnkd.in/egC_9z2b

For decades, underwriting wildfire risk largely focused on hazard and exposure. Today, a new question is emerging: 💡 Can investments in detection, mitigation, resilience, and situational awareness meaningfully change risk outcomes? I'll be moderating a panel on this topic at the Aspen Wildfire Insurance Summit this week alongside an outstanding group of leaders from forestry, emergency management, venture capital, academia, and technology. We'll explore how advances in AI, wildfire behavior modeling, forest resilience, satellite intelligence, and risk analytics are helping communities, utilities, agencies, and insurers better understand, mitigate, and respond to wildfire risk. Grateful to be joined by Hilary Franz, Hussam Mahmoud, Jay Ribakove, and Daniel Clarkson for what should be a thoughtful discussion on the future of wildfire resilience and insurance. Pano AI #Wildfire #Insurance #ClimateTech #Resilience #RiskManagement #InsurTech

"The conversation has shifted from whether wildfire will become a risk to how utilities prepare for it."

A lightning strike. A remote canyon west of Castle Rock with no rivers, no ponds, no water for miles. High fire risk - high propensity to spread quickly. On Saturday, a wildfire in Douglas County, Colorado could have run for miles. Instead, it was held to about one acre. What made the difference wasn't any one thing. It was a prepared sheriffs office executing against a proactive suppression plan. A Pano station picked up the smoke and pinpointed the fire's exact location within minutes. A Pano analyst confirmed the smoke was real and pushed the alert to responders. From there, Douglas County took over. A fire chopper was over the flames within 25 minutes and made 32 water drops, while ground crews hiked nearly an hour into terrain no truck could reach. The pano station this image came from is owned by CORE Electric Cooperative who partners with Douglas County to provide access at no cost. The incident was also caught by a Pano Station owned by Xcel Energy - who also provided access for situational awareness. That's exactly the design that works best, shared layer of protection: utilities, emergency managers, firefighters, and technology, each sharing, coordinating and stopping fires early. "This is a game-changer for public safety," said Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly. "This technology enables us to see the fire... and immediately start dispatching resources." One acre, in a canyon with no water and a lightning strike for a head start. Real credit goes to the Douglas County Office of Emergency Management, and CORE Electric Cooperative and Xcel Energy ene who put these tools in the field. We're proud to be part of it. Link to new story in the comments