About the Project
Built by the community,
for the community
A community-driven open field lab for low-cost wildfire sensing. We build the tools, run the experiments, and publish everything — including what doesn't work.
A different kind of watch
Traditional fire detection systems are built top-down — government agencies purchase expensive equipment and wait for a signal. That's important. But it's not sufficient for a state as vast and varied as Utah.
There are gaps — ridges no tower reaches, and communities in the wildland-urban interface where the first responder is always a neighbor.
Uinta Watch fills those gaps with community technology — open, redundant, and honest. Our first question isn't whether a cheap sensor can detect wildfires. It's when it can, and when it can't — and that question is answered with instruments, not marketing.
Open source, open access
Every design we publish is open source. Every sensor node can be repaired and modified by anyone. We don't believe in proprietary lock-in for public-interest infrastructure.
Uinta Watch isn't owned by any single organization or vendor. The pilot is community-funded; expanding to a regional network will take grants and institutional partners — and we'll say so plainly when it does.
Technical Approach
Every sensor node has a LoRa radio and acts as both a sensing unit and a relay. Most nodes need no internet; a handful of gateway nodes bridge the mesh to it. Whether the mesh can deliver alerts dependably through Utah terrain is itself an experiment.
Cost Per Node
Why It Matters
The ash remains long after the flames die.
Post-fire flooding, contaminated water supplies, displaced families.
The consequences of uncaught fires last for years.
The phased plan
Phase 1
Pilot
Demonstrate feasibility in one area.
5-10 sensor nodes + 1 gateway
~$1,000-1,500
Phase 2
Community
Build software dashboard. Register users.
20-50 sensor nodes, 3-5 gateways
~$5,000-9,000
Phase 3
County
Full dashboard, alert integrations, mobile app.
100-300 nodes, 10-20 gateways
~$45,000-70,000
Phase 4
Regional
Partner with local fire departments.
Multi-county coverage
Grant-dependent