A system for detecting smoke in a monitored area includes: (a) a video device for capturing a series of successive video images of the monitored area as a series of two-dimensional bitmaps having a specified number of pixels, (b) a processing device having memory capability for storing said series of images and processing capability for analyzing the series of images, and (c) an analysis algorithm that runs on the processing device and has: (i) an identification portion for examining this series of bitmaps to identify indicator areas in successive bitmaps of adjacent pixels that have the potential for being used as indicators for the existence of smoke in the monitored area, (ii) a tracking portion for identifying the trends in the growth and movement of the indicator areas, and (iii) a trend comparison portion for comparing the identified trends to determine which of the trends are consistent with those produced by a smoke cloud.