Opinion: Invest In Innovative Wildfire Technologies To Protect Our Communities

By Bob Ilko, Times of San Diego

March 13, 2021

California experienced its worst fire season yet this past year. According to Cal Fire, wildfires throughout the state killed 31 people, damaged more than 10,000 buildings, and burned 4.2 million acres — setting the record for the most acres burned in a single year.

As we prepare for the threat of further wildfires in the coming year, we must do everything in our power to avoid a repeat of 2020.

I have personally experienced the devastation that follows a wildfire. In 2003, the Cedar Fire tore through San Diego County including in my own neighborhood of Scripps Ranch. More than 2,000 homes were destroyed and families were left without shelter.

To help our community rebuild, I organized a rebuilding and relief effort called Project Phoenix. We were more fortunate than others. Over 300 homeowners lost homes in the fire, and most were able to rebuild, but we still needed support from the county and state to put Scripps Ranch back together. For those living in more rural areas, picking up the pieces was more difficult.

This is just one reason why we need to invest in more resources for our firefighters. Our first responders need more funding and firefighting tools to keep our communities and themselves safe.

As evidenced by this past year, the resources we currently have are not sufficient to battle California’s worsening fire seasons. During the 2020 fire season, we were forced to lean on neighboring counties and even other states to help us fight fires in our own state.

Already this year, we’ve seen fires and wind-driven public safety power shutoffs across the state that have threatened our communities. The threat of wildfires in California is now ever-present and it’s continuously growing.

To protect our state, we must utilize new firefighting technologies in preparation for the inevitable fire season to come, and in doing so, we must explore the emerging tools being developed in our own backyard that are readily available. In short — we need all the help we can get.

Fortunately, California minds are hard at work developing and producing the technology needed to fight the wildfires that threaten our communities. For example, out of Fresno, a company called Caylym Technologies has developed the Guardian System — an aerial firefighting system that can be implemented today to help fight fires in California.

It’s a simple, corrugated box that is filled with 264 gallons of liquid and can be carried by any rear-loading cargo plane in our fleet. Day or night, this system is able to dump water or retardant on a fire in a rainstorm-like effect which provides critical additional cover for our ground crews.

The Guardian system, unlike our current resources, is able to battle wildfires under high-wind conditions which is especially important in California as 10 of the most destructive wildfires in the state have all been wind-driven. The Santa Ana winds fueled the Cedar Fire and caused it to spread at 3,600 acres per hour burning over 273,246 acres of land in San Diego County.

The Guardian system is currently being used effectively overseas to contain and prevent wildfire devastation in Peru, Greece, and Romania but not in the United States, even though it’s passed all U.S. military standards for aerial delivery. It is time we put California-made products like this to work here in California so that our firefighters can protect our communities from wildfire devastation.

Expanding on our current firefighting capabilities will not only help us adapt to the mega-fires and worsening wildfire seasons, but ensure the safety of our firefighters as they put their lives on the line each year to protect us from danger.

I urge our leaders at the state and federal level to explore the innovative methods of firefighting that our California companies have to offer so that we can better protect our state from future devastation.

Bob Ilko is president of Scripps Ranch Neighborhood Association and a survivor of the 2003 Cedar Fire.

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