WEEK OF JUNE 5, 2025
VOLUME 123 | ISSUE 27
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Schools’ summer lunches underway Program serves 10 locations across Douglas County and Aurora to help families BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
and we can get up in the air immediately.” Pano AI, a company based in California, provides wildfire detection through artificial intelligence and real-time camera feeds across 10 U.S. states and in areas in Canada and Australia. Peter Ambler, vice president of global affairs for Pano AI, said the company’s mission is to detect wildfire faster so that communities have more time to respond. He added that nearly 100 cameras are set up around Colorado and 12 of them are in Douglas County.
According to multiple reports, including the U.S. News & World Report, Douglas County is one of the wealthiest counties in the state. But that doesn’t mean that food insecurity doesn’t exist in the county. Food insecurity, which occurs when a household cannot access enough food and essential resources, can exist for various reasons, making it easy for it to be hidden in large communities. Feeding America, a national nonprofit organization, states that food insecurity exists in every county throughout the nation, and Colorado. According to the nonprofit’s most recent data, more than 9,000 children are food insecure in Douglas County. With a population of approximately 340 million people, nearly 22% of Douglas County is under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Additionally, there are more than 62,000 students attending a school in the Douglas County School District. Regardless of the varying levels of food insecurity in Douglas County, there are various local resources available, such as food pantries and assistance programs through SECOR Cares, Help & Hope Center and WIC. There are also state programs like the Summer Food Service Program. For the third year in a row, the Douglas County School District is offering nutritious meals through its Summer Lunch Program to students whose families may struggle to afford enough food. The program provides free lunches to children and teens, ages 18 and younger, Monday through Friday.
SEE FIRE RESPONSE, P8
SEE LUNCHES, P6
The Type 2 helicopter is capable of delivering 300 gallons of water per drop when responding to a fire.
PHOTO BY HALEY LENA
County uses AI for faster fire response
System offered by California-based company alerts crews with precise location, real-time imagery
BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
It’s no secret that Colorado has been the home to numerous disastrous wildfires within the past decade, as it has one of the hottest red zones on wildfire heat maps. The state has even set records for having some of the largest wildfires in the nation, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. In Douglas County, wildfires remain the number one natural hazard threat. With more than half of the county’s residents living within the wildland urban fire interface, Douglas County Sheriff
Darren Weekly said that more people are in harm’s way than ever before, which is why response time is critical. For years, residents often reported smoke or fires to emergency responders, but through more recent use of Pano AI technology, Steve Roberts, a Douglas County emergency services supervisor, said emergency responders have been able to manage the fires more effectively. “A third of our county is forest service, and there could be fires up there that no one sees, no one smells it, no one even knows it’s there,” said Roberts. “With the Pano’s (artificial intelligence), it tells us
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