Wildfires Cost America $1 Trillion A Year — These Drones Can Stop Them

Imagine a 12-foot-wide drone that can fly to a wildfire, douse it with a 100-PSI firehose, and then scout out the next fire … all on its own.

Five of these drones are on a trailer in Colorado right now, waiting for the signal to take flight.

As Seneca founder Stuart Landesberg told me, the sooner you can get a drone up in the air and to a fire, the sooner you can put it out, and the smaller America’s $1 trillion fire bill gets. Almost all of that damage comes from the handful of fires nobody reaches in the first 10 minutes.

I recently caught up with Stuart to see why he says firefighting drones have reached their tipping point:

Click the image to watch my interview with Stuart.

In our interview you’ll hear:

• Why did wildfire tech fall behind? (1:18)

• Stuart says “a human is better than not-humans” (9:03)

• How much you can learn from a “live-fire” test (16:16)

• Why a five-drone fleet wins over one big drone (19:10)

• How to safely start a fire aviation industry (28:20)

Please click here to watch my conversation with Stuart now. 

—Stephen McBride

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Stephen McBride is a co-founder of the Rational Optimist Society.

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