Røros, Norway, is a small, historic mining town which is on UNESCO’s list of priceless historical places.The city center of Røros is under a preservation order and is listed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as one of the world’s cultural treasures, in company with Versailles and the pyramids of Egypt. A mining settlement dating from 1644, the area has many surviving buildings that are characteristic of a traditional settlement built with methods of the period. The city has preserved its 17th century layout, and its center has a distinct medieval appearance with about 80 authentic wooden houses, many with their original pitch-log facades looking out on courtyards. Both the wood-built center and a larger area around the town, with traces of 300 years of mining history, are on the World Heritage List. Densely packed, historic wooden town centers are common in Nordic cities, providing plenty of fuel and limited access for firefighting brigades to respond quickly and effectively. This is compounded in remote areas where there may be no electricity, water supply or fire brigade. Fires spread rapidly, and historic town centers have been partially or completely destroyed in the past.
Enter Mikron. Mikron Infrared’s DualVision system, has provided the town 24-hour surveillance and early detection of fire in those 17th century wooden buildings. Merging visual imaging with thermal imaging and temperature measurement, the DualVision system is mounted on a pan-and-tilt head in the city’s church tower and remotely controlled from a PC at the local fire station. No, this isn’t a process automation story…but it is a human interest one, and shows how the things we do affect the world in which we live. I’ve been to Røros, and it is a place that the world would be poorer without, and we who work in process automation can have a hand in preserving it.