How does the AI tell fire from other things?

It looks for the visual signature of combustion in the frame: the flicker of flame, the colour temperature of fire, and the shape and drift of a smoke plume across successive frames. Sites with legitimate steam, dust or exhaust are tuned against their own imagery before go-live.

How fast is a fire alert?

A confirmed event triggers the same notification chain as any other Vael alert: automated phone call, SMS and email to your nominated contacts within seconds of detection, subject to network conditions. How early the fire becomes visible depends on the camera angle and what is between the camera and the fire.

Can it detect a fire inside a building or a container?

Only if flame or smoke is visible to a camera. Fire behind a closed roller door, inside a sealed container or under a tarp is not detectable until it becomes visible in frame. This is a key limit of any camera-based approach and one we scope for before quoting.

Do I need special cameras for fire detection?

No. The module runs on the same IP cameras and NVR as your Security Monitoring plan. What matters is placement: which cameras see the areas where fire risk sits, and at what distance.

How is fire detection priced?

It is an add-on product to any Security Monitoring plan and is quoted per site, never per camera. Camera angles, lighting and distances decide what is detectable on your site, so each one is scoped rather than priced from a list.

Fire Detection Camera Software for Existing CCTV

How does camera-based fire detection work?

Camera-based fire detection looks for the visual signature of flame and smoke in stills from cameras you already have: the flicker of combustion, the colour temperature of fire, and the shape and drift of a plume across successive frames. When the AI confirms one, it notifies your contacts by SMS, phone call and email.

Read this before you buy

Vael’s fire & smoke detection is a supplementary early-warning layer, not a replacement for code-compliant fire detection systems required under the NCC or your insurance conditions. It does not replace smoke alarms, heat detectors, sprinklers or a monitored fire indicator panel, and it is not certified to AS 1670 or AS 7240. Keep the system your building code and insurer require, and treat this as an additional set of eyes on the areas those systems do not reach.

With that stated plainly, here is what the product does. A fire is one of the few security events where the difference between minutes matters more than the difference between hours. Fire & Smoke Detection is a selectable detection module that runs on the same camera feeds as your Security Monitoring plan and uses the same notification chain, so a confirmed fire event reaches the same people by the same routes as a confirmed intruder.

Why a camera can see fire before a sensor feels it

Point detectors are physical devices waiting for something to reach them. A smoke detector needs particles to travel to the chamber; a heat detector needs the air at the device to rise to a threshold. In a high-bay warehouse, an open equipment yard or a waste transfer bay, that journey takes time, and in many outdoor areas there is no detector at all because there is no ceiling to mount one on.

A camera does not wait for anything to arrive. If flame or smoke is visible anywhere in its field of view, the event is already in the frame. That is the whole argument for camera-based detection: coverage of open and outdoor areas that point detectors were never designed for, and an earlier first look at areas they do cover.

How much earlier depends entirely on the site. A plume rising in clear view of a well-placed camera is a very different case from a smouldering fire behind a stack of pallets. We do not publish a headline number of seconds saved, because the honest answer is that it varies by camera angle, distance and what is between the camera and the fire.

What the camera can and cannot see

The limits are worth being explicit about, because they decide whether the module is worth adding to a given site.

Line of sight is required. Fire inside a closed container, behind a roller door, or under a tarp is invisible until it is not. The camera detects what is visible in the frame.
Distance and resolution matter. A small flame at the far end of a large yard may occupy very few pixels. Camera placement decides what is detectable, which is why every site is scoped rather than priced from a list.
Night and low light change the picture. Flame is often easier to see at night than smoke, and a smoke plume against a dark sky may not be visible at all until it is lit.
Steam, dust and exhaust look like smoke. Sites with legitimate plumes need tuning against their own imagery before go-live so that routine operations do not trigger alerts.

Where a site has these conditions, we say so during scoping rather than after installation.

Where the module earns its place

The strongest cases are sites where fire risk sits outdoors or in large volumes: waste and recycling yards where hot loads self-ignite, equipment and plant yards holding fuel and batteries, high-bay warehousing where smoke takes time to reach the ceiling, and remote sites a long way from the nearest brigade, where the value of an early phone call is measured in the size of the response that is still possible.

How it is priced

Fire & Smoke Detection is an add-on product to any Security Monitoring plan, quoted per site. It is priced that way because camera angles, distances and lighting decide what is detectable on your particular site, and no price list can know that in advance.

Base plan required · Night Watch from $99 AUD per site per month, or Full Watch from $190 AUD per site per month.
Fire & Smoke Detection · added to either plan, quoted per site after scoping.
Multi-site portfolios · scoped across the network rather than site by site.

Full details are on the pricing page.

Add fire and smoke detection to your site

Tell us which cameras see the areas that worry you, and we will scope what is detectable from those angles before quoting.

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