The Civil Air Patrol Geospatial Program’s Damage Assessment Team is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to process photos and video of California’s wildfire outbreak to gauge the blazes’ impact and help direct response and recovery efforts.
Wildfires broke out the morning of Jan. 8, tearing across Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Almost a week later, fires are still burning.
As of Jan. 13, three CAP team members in Florida and Virginia have devoted some 65 hours to directly assisting FEMA in identifying nearly 11,400 destroyed structures across the Eaton, Palisade, and Sunset Hills fires.
“The team has worked wildfires before, most notably the Lahaina wildfire in Hawaii in the summer of 2023, but this was an order of magnitude above anything else we have previously done,” said Maj. Scott Kaplan, national CAP Geospatial Program manager.
“And yet, even being on the other side of the country from the unprecedented destruction, the team has been able to assist FEMA by providing meaningful and accurate analysis and documentation.”
The team has analyzed imagery from numerous sources, including open-source ground, helicopter, and drone videos — generally from news media, urban search and rescue ground team points, Nearmap airborne imagery, ICEYE synthetic aperture radar-derived points, and electro-optical satellite imagery provided by Maxar and BlackSky.
“Every point marked, from the first dropped to the last, tells a story of lives forever changed,” said the Geospatial Team’s Maj. Christopher Freeze, Virginia Wing emergency services officer.
“The team’s ability to quickly respond and provide federal, state, and local stakeholders with information vital to their decision-making helps those affected get their lives one step closer to recovery that much faster.”
Acting as a Total Force partner and the Air Force auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol helps First Air Force rapidly respond to nonmilitary threats domestically in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities capacity to save lives, relieve suffering, prevent property damage, and provide humanitarian assistance.
