Spexi news
3/8/2024

Kelowna Wild Fires to Be Imaged with Spexi

Spexi’s New Current State Drone Imagery Platform, to be Used to Assess Kelowna Wildfire Damage.

Map view of the Kelowna wildfires, a sub-region of the Kamloops Fire Centre. Source: https://wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca/map

Our home province of British Columbia has been under a state of emergency for the past three days due to the rampant wildfire activity across the province.

Especially hard hit is the city of Kelowna and the surrounding area within the Kamloops Fire Centre, one of six regional fire centres in B.C.

Since late last week over 30,000 people have been evacuated in Kelowna alone with another 36,000 on standby alert.

On Friday, our partner and investor, InDro Robotics was approached by the city of Kelowna to help assess the wildfire damage and they will be using the Spexi platform to collect specific segments of the imagery they need for the project.

“Drone-gathered data – whether thermal or visual – helps those in charge make the best possible decisions in a rapidly changing situation,” said InDro’s CEO, Philip Reece. “We will fly missions as long as required, and offer any other assistance we can. We hope the situation for the tens of thousands of people impacted by this disaster returns to normal as soon as possible.”

Here at Spexi, as we’ve been building Spexi, we’ve seen the devastation happening in other parts of the province and we’ve been discussing how what we’re building can help.

*A map of Kelowna using the soon to be released Spexi Explorer web app.

We believe Current State Imagery, imagery that is recent and frequently captured in areas before and after an event takes place, will prove extremely useful to decision-makers in times of need.

It is our hope that our technology will have a positive effect and play a role in helping the people of Kelowna and we’ll be doing all we can to help during this ongoing emergency.

To learn more about the events unfolding in Kelowna: First source, Second source

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