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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Firetech in 2030 🧵 4 years ago, during the horrible 2020 wildfire season, I was inspired to work on the wildfire mission.
@WildfiresORG
has since become an official US Forest Service partner, and has shipped & deployed a NEPA-accelerating software with US National Forests field units. Out of the ashes of the 2025 LA fires, I am hoping founders find inspiration to help the US develop firetech for the next decade. If you're a founder looking for a mission, I challenge you to explore the firetech ideas below.
@convectivecap
and
@billclerico
are actively investing in the space.
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David Watson 🥑
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
The US firetech strategy broadly has three pillars: 1. Fuel reduction 2. Community protection (home & utility hardening) 3. Better suppression
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
In fuel reduction, there's national & project planning, thinning, prescribed fire, and biomass economics (getting biomass out of the forests).
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Fuel Reduction > National Planning US Forest Service is already great at fire spread modeling, and
@vibrantplanet_
is building great prioritization software. The US land managers (USFS, CalFire, BLM, etc) struggle with knowing where fuel treatment activities have occured.
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Fuel Reduction > Project Planning We need to accelerate field surveys and make them possible outside the field season. Think tree, road, land ownership, botany, wildlife surveys from aerial drones. And for on the ground surveys, buy a Unitree B2W unitree.com/b2-w to
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Fuel Reduction > Timber There's likely a workflow & marketplace opportunity for land managers to hire loggers & get wood out of the forest. 1. Timber harvest plan 2. Contract drafting 3. Bidding + contractor marketplace 4. Biomass economics - who will take the wood?
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Fuel Reduction > Prescribed Fire Prescribed fire is complex for practitiones because of the onerous regulations (Clear Air Act differs by CA county), nervous communities, and the risk of runaway prescribed fire. There's likely an opportunity to make the workflow more automated:
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Fuel Reduction > Biomass Economics There's very few buyers of wood chips and low-diameter wood, and US Forest Service timber crews have trouble marketable uses fo their wood. A team that builds a marketplace (and launches region by region) can likely solve this problem.
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
The second pillar is Community Protection, and creating transparency/incentives for local municipalities and towns to improve their resilience.
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Community Protection Today, residents & prospective buyers know little else about the town's preparedness other than a "fire score". What really matters is: 1. Evac routes — what is your evac route? and 2. Home hardening — does your WUI town have a home hardening program
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Ilya Volodarsky
@ivolo
Third pillar is Next-gen Suppression, the new advances have been rapid detection (with cameras like
@Pano_AI
) & intense air attack (with increasing air tanker support) & more transparency with
@watchdutyapp
. US Land agencies are generally kicking ass on this, but of course
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