FALLBROOK —— Thirteen infrared sensors, each with a range of six miles, will soon be placed in De Luz to aid in the early detection of wildfires, a measure that local fire-safety advocates say will help prevent disasters such as the 2002 Gavilan fire.

Unveiled Thursday on the third anniversary of the start of the Gavilan blaze, the sensor network will not rely on unpredictable batteries or the direct sight of flames or smoke, says Vera Moldt, vice president of the company that invented the foot-high sensor.

"We developed a technology that was totally battery-free, would convert light to energy over a wide range of light conditions, and store the energy in non-battery-based mediums so that we could power sensors for 10 to 20 years battery-free and virtually maintenance-free," said Moldt during a Thursday press conference on behalf of Ambient Control Systems.

Placed strategically around the 4,344-acre San Diego State University wildlife research area in De Luz, the sensors "will detect a wildfire from up to six miles away and will communicate the GPS coordinates of that fire to the fire station," Moldt said.

"It … identifies the infrared signature in the carbon dioxide cloud that's generated by an organic fire," she continued, adding that the $12,000 sensors "don't depend on seeing flame, don't depend on seeing smoke."

Besides alerting fire authorities far sooner than the current system of relying on emergency calls and line-of-sight monitoring, the sensor network will also give firefighters the advantage of knowing exactly where a fire is located, Moldt concluded.

Thursday's announcement marked the latest fire-prevention idea to come out of a coalition of community and government groups, including the North County Fire Protection District and the Fallbrook Fire Safety Council, dedicated to minimizing fire disasters.

Hosted by the fire safety committee, the press conference occupied the driveway of what used to be Dorothy Roth's house. Behind the speakers who addressed fire safety Thursday stood a 20-foot-high chimney, a ghostly reminder of the damage to houses on the outskirts of northern Fallbrook three years ago.

"Wildfire is simply an element of life in Southern California," said Steve Abbott, fire marshal of the North County Fire Protection District. "It's only a matter of time before an event like this happens again, and if we don't want to have the same outcome, we have to learn from what's happened and be able to respond accordingly."

Other measures proposed by the Fallbrook Fire Safety Council include a community siren warning system and a Web site that would provide live feeds from several fire-sensitive areas in De Luz and Fallbrook. Those and other measures are the focus of a fund-raiser kicked off at Thursday's ceremony with the goal of raising $300,000, said Tracy Ragsdale, the group's founder and coordinator.

"We have dedicated every moment we can to try and bring fire prevention and fire safety issues to this community. By no means is it an easy task —— it's not glamorous, it's not fun, nobody wants to think about it, nobody wants to talk about it," she said, adding that "in this county, it's a reality, and it's something that everybody needs to think about and prepare for."

Ragsdale also called for volunteers to drive around Fallbrook and verify the accuracy of a community evacuation map that has been drafted for San Diego County natural disaster officials as part of an emergency preparedness plan.

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 731-5799 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.