When I started there they were using Apple III computers and fax machines. Along with others we ushered them through DOS, Windows then into a UNIX-based ORACLE environment with Province-wide networking and radio communication.
If you've ever listened to AM radio during a thunderstorm you've heard the electrical discharge from a lightning strike. The Province was dotted with special sensors that would listen for these and would be able to triangulate the location, determine the intensity and whether or not it was a ground strike. This was digitized into a database live.
There was a weather department that collected data about temperature, humidity, wind speed etc. There was a biology department that kept track of bugs like pine borers. Other people collected information about soil conditions and tree dryness. There were lookout towers watching for smoke. There was also information about every aircraft (including air tankers and helicopters), fire crews and their resources.
All this was run through a complex AI system that predicted forest fire problems.
There was a big room with huge projection monitors. The Duty Officer sat in the middle of this and could bring up maps showing lighting strikes, active fires, aircraft and crew locations, drought conditions, weather, radar and the AI generated fire prediction map. He could then direct resources to the fire and watch them deploy.
One of the big issues was helicopters. They were expensive to rent and god help you if you got one wet by getting one only to have it rain.
Therein lies the problem. The Duty Officer can watch a fire unfold from the lightning strike to the tower report of smoke and have a crew ready to go, but if he can't rent a helicopter or gas up an air tanker and fill it with foam, he's helpless.
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