The Gilpin County Sheriff and Office of Emergency Management invited press to a conference on February 16, 2022, at 10 a.m.at the intersection of highways 119 and 46 in Gilpin County. It was a live event to promote the deployment of N5 sensors for wildfire prevention.

Gilpin is the first county in the state to begin building a base of the sensors. The ultimate goal is to disperse 150 sensors throughout the county.

The location was chosen to display one of the N5 sensors. The announcement featured the sensor, Sheriff Kevin Armstrong, Gilpin County OEM Director Nathan Whittington, and N5 Sensor representative Debra Deininger.

Although the sun was shining, the temperatures were freezing. Sheriff Armstrong started the conference and displayed the sensor. After introducing the need for the sensors, he said the county has 6,200 residents but with people coming to the casinos and enjoying recreation in public forest lands, the number of people in the county often expands to 40,000 people, so it is important to be able to evacuate them should there be a wildfire.

Whittington gave a presentation, and then participants gathered around the sensor for photographs. Due to the cold, the conference was reconvened at the Gilpin County Justice Center, but only reporters for The Mountain-Ear and Weekly Register Call attended.

According to a news release, the Gilpin County Sheriff and Gilpin County OEM have partnered with N5 Sensors to deploy N5’s wildfire detection and tracking product throughout the County for early detection of wildfires. “The N5 system uses proprietary nano-engineered sensors and artificial intelligence to send immediate threat alerts and actionable information to users such as the Gilpin County OEM” the release states.

“Due to the rural nature of Gilpin County, these sensors can give emergency service agencies early detection of a potential threat. This can be a game changer that will allow for rapid response to begin attacking the fire earlier.”

Gilpin County is a pilot county for 2022 and will be working closely with N5 Sensors throughout the year. The sensors are designed to alert the Emergency Operations Center of noticeable increases in heat, chemical makeup of fire, and air quality triggers.

Last year, the Sheriff and OEM hosted engineers from N5 Sensors to run preliminary analyses to ensure the notifications would work in areas throughout the county where cell signal is weak. N5 Sensors completed field tests of their systems in California in 2021 and in Gilpin County in 2022 during the prescribed burns that the United States Forest Service completed in February and March.

Whittington stated, “Last week, on February 1 and 2, the sensors were deployed on the controlled burn piles in Gilpin County and they worked flawlessly.” First responders from Gilpin County and N5 used sensors at the recent prescribed burns at Yankee Hill.

The result of this study demonstrated the ability of the sensors to detect and track fire and air quality. Whittington said the signal went to Maryland and bounced back here. They received the signal 36 minutes before they received the first 911 call from someone who saw the fires.

According to Armstrong, “The hope is that we can detect a wildland fire before it has time to grow. Community safety is paramount and time is critical.”

Sheriff Armstrong also commented on the need for immediate and efficient evacuations, stating “We need to know as fast as we can that we have a threatening fire so we can initiate evacuation orders immediately; many of our roads are one way in and one way out. We must be ahead of evacuations.”

“Gilpin County is an important partner, and we are honored to work closely with them to take every action possible to manage wildfire threats and protect county residents,” said Abhishek Motayed, CEO of N5 Sensors. “We are grateful for the continued support for development of this technology from DHS Science and Technology Directorate Labs program.”

As part of the N5 Sensors program, Gilpin OEM and Fire departments will have 24/7 access to a dashboard and realtime alerts that will help them understand and manage threats from fire.

N5 uses artificial intelligence to analyze data collected on particulate, gas, temperature, pressure, and heat signatures. The dashboard also collects data from other sources, such as wind, and all information that is important in detection and tracking fire. This information allows first responders to detect and quickly deploy resources to control fire, protecting lives and infrastructure.

Whittington said they hope to disburse 150 sensors that would form a network throughout the county. “This is a good start to where we want to go, which is to get there before it becomes a wildfire.”

They have six sensors already that they are reserving to use for pile burns, so they can begin to build a data base. They have 26 sensors coming in to be deployed this summer, and plan to get a grant or funds through the Gilpin County Commission for the rest of the 150 sensors. The Commissioners have been supportive. Commission Chair Sandy Hollingsworth attended the event.

The County has been a partner with United Power, which already has a grid system in the county, so they can mount the sensors on their poles. The sensors do not provide live video.

Field testing of the sensor will take place during storms to get a baseline. When a sensor stops or is damaged, it will stop connecting, providing an alert, so County personnel can check it out.

Regarding vandalism, Whittington said that he hoped that people would know these devices could save their lives and will leave them alone. Nevertheless, County staff will do their best to hide them.

For more information about N5 sensors, check out https://n5sensors.com/