‘Wildfires are kind of like cancer’: Laguna Canyon is test site for O.C. teen’s system to detect small blazes
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 19. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
Since 2018, when Ryan Honary of Newport Beach entered a fifth-grade science project in hopes of demonstrating how early warning systems might prevent wildfire tragedies, he has been transforming a temperature sensor on a circuit board he designed for that project into a system that could greatly help the Orange County Fire Authority and other agencies in our state and beyond.
Over the years, the Daily Pilot has followed the impressive accomplishments racked up by Honary, who had the idea to use a network of sensors with wireless mesh networking designed to operate in remote and fragile environments. His efforts garnered the attention of the O.C. Fire Authority and the grant-funding support of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.
One of the photos we have on file of him was taken when he was 13. In it, he holds a presentation check representing the funds he won in 2019 in the Ignite Student Challenge, nearly $2 million. In 2021, with that funding in hand, the seventh-grade student at the Pegasus School helped launch the startup Sensory AI. The goal was to use artificial intelligence to prevent and predict hazards that threaten natural resources, he told us then, and not just wildfires.
In January 2023, when Honary was 15 and a freshman at Newport Harbor High School, he went to Paris where he hosted a panel discussion and global showcase on “The Future of Artificial Intelligence-Driven Environmental Solutions” at the Learning Planet Festival, an event created by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Learning Planet Institute. He told the paper he would use his platform there to launch an effort geared toward engaging others in his age group to create solutions for environmental problems. He called it the Climate Solutions Society.
We did not want to miss the latest news of this enterprising young man, so last week we caught up with the now 17-year-old when he installed the first of about 30 solar-powered and AI-assisted monitoring stations that will be positioned along Laguna Canyon Road this year.
The equipment uses infrared cameras and gas sensors, according to the reporting for the Daily Pilot by my colleague Eric Licas. They can detect a 1-foot patch of flames from up to 1,200 feet away. “Proprietary artificial intelligence technology trains them to differentiate fires from heat coming from vehicle exhaust, the sun or other benign sources,” Licas reports, and “network with each other via Wi-Fi to create a constant web of surveillance in remote areas and automatically send alerts to firefighters at the earliest signs of a potential disaster.”
Imagine if such a system as Honary has devised had been in place in Orange and Riverside counties when the Airport fire broke out in September and in Los Angeles County where we witnessed mass destruction last month from the fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Multiple thousands of homes might have been saved and there would not still be so very many people left wondering how to pick up the pieces and start all over again.
“Wildfires are kind of like cancer,” Honary told the reporter. “When you catch them in the earlier stages they’re much easier to put out and deal with.”
MORE NEWS
• With their meeting taking place last night, after this newsletter’s deadline, I can’t report for certain whether or not the MAGA Huntington Beach City Council approved for the city’s public library a 50th anniversary plaque that has stirred up a significant amount of controversy. I’m betting the council gave it the green light for installation, but I could be proven wrong. I can say that last week the Huntington Beach Community and Library Services Commission unanimously approved the design, which many believe carries an intentional MAGA signal, with the letters M (for Magical), A (Alluring), G (Galvanizing) and A (Adventurous) at the center of it.
• Assemblyman Tri Ta, a Republican representing the 70th Assembly District, is the co-author of a bill, AB 504, that he hopes will end confusion faced by nail salon owners and technicians over a new law that prevents manicurists from being considered independent contractors, as they have been up until now. According to a TimesOC report, nail salon workers are now subject to a test to determine if they are independent contractors or should instead be employees.
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• A 63-year-old convicted sex offender, Robert Rudy Salinas, was arrested by Garden Grove police Feb. 3 and has been charged with committing lewd acts with a minor, meeting a minor to commit lewd conduct and contacting a minor with intent to commit a specified offense, the L.A. Times reports. Nearly two decades ago, Salinas was captured in a sting on the TV show “To Catch A Predator” and was arrested by police. He was convicted of attempting to commit lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and is listed on the Megan’s Law website.
• Guadalupe Ortiz, a former Orange County sheriff’s deputy, was acquitted yesterday of charges that he used excessive force on April 1, 2021, when he poured hot water on the arm of a mentally ill defendant to get him to pull his hands back into his cell in Orange County Jail, City News Service reported.
• A man and a woman who were trapped in fast-moving water in San Juan Creek were rescued by Orange County Fire Authority firefighters after they received notification that help was needed at 1:42 a.m. Friday. City News Service reported responders searched from the land, in boats, on bridges and from helicopters with swiftwater rescue crews prepositioned during the rain event until the two were extracted.
SPORTS
• Angels star Mike Trout, who has been plagued with injuries in recent seasons, is moving from center to right field in hopes of better preserving his health. After considering such a switch, the three time AL MVP approached management with the plan. “I came to the conclusion that I’m going to go to right field,” he told the Associated Press. “I’ll try it out and see where it goes.”
• A 6-year-old mare named Kimberly’s Devil was euthanized Saturday night after she collapsed while being loaded into the gate for the third race at Los Alamitos, according to a City News Service report.
LIFE & LEISURE
• The nonprofit Families Forward launched its Community Market in Irvine last Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, an event documented in this Daily Pilot feature. The concept is to offer foods to the clients the organization serves in a setting that gives them the feel and experience of being in a welcoming store such as a Trader Joe’s market.
• Five community organizations recently kicked off the Orange County Asian American Cancer Partnership, which forged with CalOptima to train patient navigators to educate the Asian American community about cancer prevention. Participating groups include Korean Community Services, Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance, Southland Integrated Services, the Cambodian Family and the Vital Access Care Foundation, which is also known as the Vietnamese American Cancer Foundation. “We expect not only to bridge cancer gaps for the 35,000 folks we already serve, but to expand cancer care access to upwards of 10,000 medical patients across diverse linguistic, cultural and geographic communities,” said Ellen Ahn, chief executive of Korean Community Services.
CALENDAR THIS
• “Echoes of Conflict: Remembering Vietnam” opened Saturday at the O.C. fairgrounds Heroes Hall veterans museum. The exhibit gives visitors a comprehensive look at the controversial war through artifacts, immersive experiences and the voices of the men and women who served there as members of the armed forces.
• “1968: A Folsom Redemption and Beyond Confinement,” a photography exhibit centering on country singer Johnny Cash’s famed performance at the maximum security prison, is on view at the Fullerton Museum Center now through March 9. The center is located at 301 N. Pomona Ave. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids ages 5 to 18.
• Leapin’ lizards! The hit Broadway musical “Annie” opened last night at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and will continue through Sunday. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.; tickets, which start at $44.07, can be purchased here.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
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