On a March afternoon, artificial intelligence detected something resembling smoke on a camera feed from Arizona’s Coconino National Forest. Human analysts verified it wasn't a cloud or dust, then alerted the state's forest service and largest electric utility.
One of dozens of AI cameras installed for the utility Arizona Public Service had spotted early signs of what came to be known as the Diamond Fire. Firefighters raced to the scene and contained the blaze before it grew past 7 acres (2.8 hectares).
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Contractors inspect Pano AI cameras used for detecting wildfires Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
A Pano AI camera looks for signs of wildfire Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
Contractors inspect Pano AI cameras used for detecting wildfires Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
Workers observe a tower where Pano AI cameras are installed for detecting wildfires Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
As record-breaking heat and an abysmal snowpack raise concerns about severe wildfires, states across the fire-prone West are adding AI to their wildfire detection toolbox, banking on the technology to help save lives and property.
Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active AI smoke-detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer's end, and the state’s fire agency has deployed seven of its own. Another utility, Xcel Energy in Colorado, has installed 126 and aims to have cameras in seven of the eight states it serves by year's end.
“Earlier detection means we can launch aircraft and personnel to it and keep those fires as small as we can,” said John Truett, fire management officer for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
ALERTCalifornia is a network of some 1,240 AI-enabled cameras across the Golden State that work similar to the system in Arizona.
Human intervention keeps the risk of false positives low and trains the technology to become more accurate, said Neal Driscoll, geology and geophysics professor at the University of California, San Diego, and founder of ALERTCalifornia.
“The AI that’s being run on the cameras is actually beating 911 calls,” he said.
In Arizona, California and beyond, the technology is mostly used in high-risk areas that are sparsely populated, rural or remote, where a blaze might not be quickly spotted by human eyes.
“It’s just the ones where we won’t get a 911 call for a long time, it is extremely helpful to have that AI always monitoring that camera,” said Brent Pascua, battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. “In many cases, we’ve started a response before 911 was even called, and in a few cases, we’ve actually started a response, went there, put the fire out, and never received a 911 call.”
Pano AI, whose technology combines high-definition camera feeds, satellite data and AI monitoring, has seen a growing interest in its cameras since launching in 2020. They've been deployed in Australia, Canada and 17 U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington and Texas. Its customers include forestry operations, government agencies and utilities, including Arizona Public Service.
Last year, its technology detected 725 wildfires in the U.S., the company said.
“In many of these situations, we hear from stakeholders that the visual intelligence, the time, really, really gives them a head start and some of these could have taken off into hundreds if not thousands of acres,” said Arvind Satyam, the company’s co-founder and chief commercial officer.
Cindy Kobold, an Arizona Public Service meteorologist, said the technology notifies them about 45 minutes faster on average than the first 911 call.
Satyam said development of the technology was driven by the lack of hardened solutions to combat worsening wildfires. Climate change — caused by burning oil, gas and coal — is warming the planet and fueling dry conditions that supercharge infernos, making them burn hotter, faster and more frequently. The technology helps firefighters to safely and effectively respond while protecting communities and infrastructure, he said.
One of the biggest obstacles to implementation is the price tag; Pano AI, for instance, charges around $50,000 annually per camera. The cost also includes fire risk analysis and 24/7 intelligence center.
False alarms present a challenge, which can be costly in terms of time and attention, said Patrick Roberts, a senior researcher with the nonprofit research group RAND who recently finished a project on accelerating innovation in wildfire management.
And when the AI accurately detects a fire, it doesn’t tell stakeholders the best course of action.
“Do you send help right away? Do you monitor? Should you worry about it? Where do you send help? Do you think about evacuation? All this still requires people and decision support systems,” said Roberts.
In highly populated areas, people tend to spot and call in fires pretty quickly, and the tech is not so useful when extreme weather events, such as hurricane-force winds, intensify and rapidly shift the flames, as happened in Los Angeles last year.
Pascua says the technology complements Cal Fire’s work.
“As the fire moves and shifts around, that’s where the human factor comes in and decides which tactics are best in fighting the fire. AI can only do so much,” he said. “It just provides that real time information where we can make better decisions on the fire ground.”
AI can also be employed to identify the best places to thin vegetation and burn cool fires, and even to monitor air quality for signs of smoke, just like your home's carbon monoxide sensor, said Roberts, but “1,000 times more sensitive.”
At George Mason University in Virginia, professor Chaowei “Phil” Yang is working with researchers from California State University of Los Angeles, the city of LA and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create a system that forecasts where a fire will burn and which communities will be hardest hit by smoke pollution.
The idea is to give agencies real-time maps so they can make quick, life-saving decisions about evacuations, school and road closures, and send out early air quality warnings. Yang said they hope the technology will be operational in three years.
“AI in wildfires, it’s no longer just speculative. It’s really being used,” said Roberts, and it's use will only continue to grow.
“The future is AI everywhere,” he said, “and the lines will blur between AI wildfire detection and just wildfire detection as the lines will blur in other areas of our life.”
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Contractors inspect Pano AI cameras used for detecting wildfires Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
A Pano AI camera looks for signs of wildfire Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
Contractors inspect Pano AI cameras used for detecting wildfires Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
Workers observe a tower where Pano AI cameras are installed for detecting wildfires Monday, April 20, 2026, in Aurora, Colo. (AP photo/Brittany Peterson)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Monday it came under attack by Iran for the first time since a fragile ceasefire took hold in early April. The attacks appeared to be in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy.
The UAE Defense Ministry said Iran had launched four cruise missiles, with three shot down and one falling into the sea. Authorities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah said an Iranian drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE.
The attacks came after the U.S. military said two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz after it launched a new initiative to restore traffic Monday.
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters that American forces have opened a passage through the strait and that U.S. military helicopters have sunk six Iranian small boats that were targeting civilian vessels. He said Iran has launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at ships the U.S. military is protecting, and that “each and every one” of the threats had been defeated.
Breaking Iran’s chokehold on the strait would ease global economic concerns and deny Tehran a major source of leverage. But such efforts also risk reigniting the full-scale fighting that erupted when the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran on Feb. 28, prompting it to close the strait.
Iran's effective closure of the strait, which runs between Iran and Oman, has caused a spike in worldwide fuel prices and rattled the global economy. The U.S.-led Joint Maritime Information Center had advised ships Monday to cross the strait in Oman’s waters, saying it had set up an “enhanced security area.”
Reports of new attacks raised doubts as to whether shipping companies, and their insurers, would take such a risk given that Iran has fired on ships in the waterway and vowed to keep doing so. Iran has said the new U.S. effort is a violation of the fragile ceasefire that has held for more than three weeks.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said the two American-flagged merchant ships were “safely headed on their journey” after transiting the Strait of Hormuz. It said Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf were helping to restore traffic.
Its statement on X said that U.S. destroyers had also transited the strait. It did not say when the Navy ships arrived or when the merchant vessels departed.
Trump's announcement Sunday that the U.S. would “guide” ships out of the strait warned that Iranian efforts to block them “will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.”
He described “Project Freedom” in humanitarian terms, designed to aid stranded seafarers on hundreds of ships that have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began. Crews have described to The Associated Press seeing drones and missiles explode over the waters earlier in the war as their vessels run low on drinking water, food and other supplies.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency called the effort part of Trump's “delirium.”
Iran’s military command on Monday said ships passing through the strait must coordinate with them.
“We warn that any foreign military force — especially the aggressive U.S. military — that intends to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz will be targeted,” Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi told state broadcaster IRIB.
The extent of the attack on Fujairah was unclear, but it is the terminus of a pipeline the UAE has used to avoid shipping some of its oil through the strait. The emirate on the Gulf of Oman is home to extensive oil storage facilities and is the UAE’s main sea access outside the strait.
In a separate incident, the South Korean government said an explosion and fire had broken out aboard a South Korean-operated ship anchored in the strait off the UAE. No injuries were reported. It was not immediately known if the vessel was one of the burning ships reported by the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center.
The disruption of the waterway has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf oil and gas, raising prices far beyond the region.
The U.S. has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran for transit of the strait.
The Joint Maritime Information Center urged mariners to coordinate closely with authorities in Oman “due to anticipated high traffic volume.” It warned that passing close to usual routes “should be considered extremely hazardous due to the presence of mines that have not been fully surveyed and mitigated.”
The head of security for the Baltic and International Maritime Council, a leading shipping trade group, said no formal guidance or details about the U.S. effort had been issued to the industry. Jakob Larsen questioned whether the effort was sustainable and said it carries a “risk of hostilities breaking out again.”
The United Arab Emirates accused Iran of targeting a tanker linked to its main oil company with two drones as it navigated the strait. It did not say when the attack occurred. No injuries were reported.
Iranian news agencies, including the semiofficial Fars and ILNA, reported Monday that Iran struck a U.S. vessel near an Iranian port southeast of the strait, accusing it of “violating maritime security and navigation norms.” The reports said the vessel was forced to turn back.
U.S. Central Command said on X that “no U.S. Navy ships have been struck.”
The U.S. has enforced a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13, telling at least 49 commercial ships to turn back, according to Central Command.
The blockade has deprived Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy. U.S. officials have expressed hope that the blockade forces Iran to make concessions in talks on its disputed nuclear program and other longstanding issues.
Iran’s latest proposal for ending the war calls for the U.S. lifting sanctions, ending the blockade, withdrawing forces from the region and ceasing all hostilities, including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semiofficial Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran’s security apparatus.
Iranian officials said they were reviewing the U.S. response, though Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters Monday that changing demands made diplomacy difficult. He did not give details.
Iran has claimed its proposal does not include issues related to its nuclear program and enriched uranium — long a driving force in tensions with the U.S. and Israel.
Iran wants other issues resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire. Trump expressed doubt over the weekend that the proposal would lead to a deal.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell in Dubai; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.
A container ship sits at anchor as a small motorboat passes in the foreground in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A bulk cargo ship sits at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A patrol boat moves through the water as cargo ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
An Iranian tugboat floats in the foreground as cargo ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, May 4, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A container ship sits at anchor as a small motorboat passes in the foreground in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
People view rugs at the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Sunday, May 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman looks at jewelry in the window of a gold shop at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Sunday, May 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man stands in the water, appearing to fish, as bulk carriers, cargo ships, and service vessels line the horizon in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, April 27, 2026.(Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
Vehicles drive past a billboard with graphic showing Strait of Hormuz and sewn lips of U.S. President Donald Trump in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Cargo ships are seen at sea near the Strait of Hormuz, as viewed from a rocky shoreline near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
