The HAUKANKEN early fire warning system was developed by INVAP for the province of Río Negro, Argentina. It is a system meant for the remote, full time monitoring of places where mixed fire events are frequent, mostly in the borders of wood ecosystems and human settlements. It may also operate in other situations, ranging from urban sprawl to remote and unpopulated wildernesses covered by wood, shrub or grassland.

HAUKANKEN means “place of the fire” in aboriginal shelknum language. Whenever fire sprouts, the high performing cameras of Haukanken will detect and locate it from great distances, with no guardsmen needed on site and before things get out of control. With its own meteorological sensors, Haukanken keeps remote operational centers instantly aware of local conditions that may trigger alerts. The whole system is designed and manufactured to work under harsh conditions, ranging from minus -10C to + 50C temperatures to urban vandalism. The core of it consists of two cameras, one operating in visible light and the other in the infrared. The integrated meteorological station senses atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, temperature, the direction and speed of winds, rainfall and dew point.

The cameras usually follow round the clock pre-set sweeps, but if needed, they may be remotely directed by hand. When a significant infra-red source appears, the sweep can be stopped to measure it and amplify the optical image of the place.

Haukanken was developed for Argentina’s Patagonian Subantartic forests, where booming tourism and urban sprawl are worsening summer blazes in dry years.

The first system was deployed in 2005 at Bariloche, Río Negro, where it surveys the fire-prone and woody ramparts of the Cerro Otto area. A repeating microwave station sends data and images to be filtered and recorded at the SPLIF (the Provincial Forest Fire Prevention and Combat System) headquarters. A second Haukanken was deployed at El Bolsón, Neuquén, another tourism hot-spot 130 km. south of Bariloche.