As Colorado faces another high-risk wildfire season, a small Israel-based startup, Firewave, is developing acoustic-based fire detection technology that can detect wildfires within minutes, often before visual cues such as smoke or flames are visible.
Michael Ben Aharon, chief revenue officer at Firewave, led a demonstration of the technology for Larimer County fire departments at the Poudre Fire Authority Training Center in Fort Collins on Friday, June 12, at 10 a.m.
Ben Aharon first explained how the technology operated and answered questions from the fire department. He then demonstrated the technology in real time. The first test used a speaker to mimic fire sounds, followed by a second test in which the fire department burned a controlled fire. In both tests, sensors detected the fire within 20 to 40 seconds.
“Right now, it’s crucial to me that when I alert about a fire, it’s not big enough to be seen from a satellite or anything,” Ben Aharon said in an interview with the Estes Valley Voice. “It’s small enough that you can take a fire extinguisher and deal with it before the fire department arrives, because [if] we have to wait for the fire department, that’s additional time, and it grows fast.”
Early wildfire detection relied on visual cues and cameras. Justin Whitesell, chief of emergency services at the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, said, “Firefighters have been fighting wildland fire the same way for almost 100 years,” and they haven’t made “any huge drastic improvements until probably the last five years.”
According to Firewave Founder Jenia Yurkovsky, modern camera systems use satellites, drones, and AI to identify thin plumes of smoke and unusual heat patterns, and to determine whether the alert is “real” or the result of something else in the area. By using sound, Firewave’s technology can detect wildfires earlier than traditional camera and satellite-based systems.
In a fast-moving fire, getting an alert within a couple of minutes versus much later determines whether a blaze is quickly contained or allowed to grow into a fire that burns thousands of acres.
“I don’t think it’s one technology that’s going to solve the problem,” Whitesell said. “I think it’s going to be a toolbox. These listening devices [are] one of those tools, along with the AI cameras, the satellite detection, and notification.”
The Firewave system costs about $100 to $120 per unit, according to Ben Aharon. He describes it as a “smoke detector for the outdoors.”
Whitesell said Estes Park has long relied on 911 calls and visible smoke to signal a wildfire — warnings that can come too late for older residents with health issues and the tens of thousands of tourists packed into a town with only a couple of roads in and out, especially during major events.
“Estes Park being surrounded by an amazing national park is a huge concern,” Whitesell said. “911 calls [are] what we typically have relied on over the years to be notified of a wildfire, and until the fire gets big enough to be seen, we don’t get notified.”
He said early-detection tools like AI listening devices and cameras are ultimately about buying extra time to evacuate.
“I would definitely put [the system] at the most vulnerable point, the thing that you can’t allow to catch fire,” Ben Aharon said. “Either super high-risk areas or high-value areas, like people’s homes that are right next to the forest — those are the places where we put it.”
Ben Aharon said the biggest concerns they’ve heard about the Firewave system are the risk of false alarms and the challenge of determining how many units a community needs. He said they address these concerns by having the sensors handle most of the listening and analysis on-site, sending only suspected fire sounds to cloud-based AI for a second check.
Additionally, the devices are left in place for a few days to listen to and learn the local background noise before alarms are activated. According to Whitesell, another concern is that some might see the system as a form of surveillance rather than a means of safety.
“We are not in the business of tracking people [or] watching people,” Whitesell said. “[These devices] are not meant to listen in on conversations, not meant to do anything. We’re really just trying to keep the community safe and use whatever technology is cost-efficient but also has shown success.”
Colorado is one of Firewave’s first deployment sites outside Israel and its first active site in North America, with Canadian deployments still in the works. Ben Aharon said they are deploying and testing the system at Ramah in the Rockies, a Colorado summer camp.
“Fires will occur,” Ben Aharon said. “There’s nothing you can do. Wildfires will happen. What you can do is you can minimize the risk to your community … The more ready you are, the more you take steps, the less bad it’s going to be.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.