Gray Sky Event: Park Fire, California

In collaboration with our operations partner Vexcel, the GIC has collected high-resolution aerial imagery of the areas and properties damaged by the Park Fire in California. This imagery and data provide insurance companies, insurtech firms, emergency managers, and government agencies with critical information and resources for assessing the property damage caused by the Park Fire.

This imagery, including both high-resolution ortho and multispectral images at 10cm resolution, is now available through the GIC/Vexcel Platform. GIC members and partners can access the data via the Viewer, APIs, Image Services for ArcGIS, and other partner sites.

Background

The Park Fire, which spans four counties in California (Butte, Plumas, Shasta, and Tehama), started on July 24 due to arson and has since burned more than 400,000 acres. Our Gray Sky Team has been actively monitoring the fire since late July. Once the weather and smoke conditions were favorable, they activated flight crews earlier this week to capture the necessary imagery across 2,975 square kilometers (~1,149 square miles).

Damage Assessment

The fire has resulted in the loss of residences and outbuildings, with early estimates indicating that over 500 structures have been damaged. Alongside the post-CAT imagery, the GIC will be providing a comprehensive and color-coded damage assessment of properties within the Gray Sky collection area.