FORTUNE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 41WILDFIRESTe c h ’s
Fire Fight
Startups are giving
firefighters new
tools in their battle
against increasingly
destructive blazes.
But can tech make
much of a difference?
BY KEVIN T. DUGANstructive in the state, the
information has helped
keep it from spiraling fur-
ther out of control. “We’re
having longer, hotter,
drier summers, and the
end result is these mega
fires,” says Jon Heggie, a
battalion chief with the
California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protec-
tion, known as Cal Fire.
“It’s great that we have a
computer program that
can tell us how big the
fire’s going to get,” he adds,
while cautioning that fire-
fighters must still do the
dirty work of extinguish-
ing the flames.
Over the past few years,
firefighters have increas-
ingly enlisted tech to
help them get an upper
hand against wildfires. In
addition to sophisticated
mapping, they are using
artificial intelligence to
spot new fires and drones
that start backfires to com-
bat raging infernos.
The tech push comes
after California, along with
much of the West, has
experienced a succession
of devastating fire sea-
sons. This year is already
California’s second worst,
with more than 2.2 million
acres burned.
Nearly real-time predic-
tions about fire behavior
are a big change from the
relatively ad hoc systems
used by firefighters in the
past. Joaquin Ramirez,
founder of Technosylva,
the startup that provides
the mapping technology
used in California, was in
his mid-twenties when he
experienced his first wild-
land fire in 1994. He was
working for the SpanishAS THE DIXIE FIRE—California’s second-
largest ever—burned through more than
960,000 acres of forest and brush this summer,
firefighters mobilized with the same tools they
have used for decades: water hoses, chain saws,
and airplanes carrying fire retardant.
But this year they had an additional weapon
in their arsenal: high-tech maps showing where
the fire would likely go next. The maps, acces-
sible on computers and tablets, were based on
millions of climate and topographic data points,
such as weather, wind patterns, and the type of
vegetation in the area.
The idea is to help commanders leading the
battle make better decisions about where to
deploy fire crews and whom to evacuate. While
this fire season has been unusually long and de-THE BRIEFTechnosylva’s
maps show
where ires are
headed, helping
ireighters
better prepare.COURTESY OF TECHNOSYLVA