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The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

rain.aero

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Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#41

Post by lnwlebjel »

mabbo wrote: post #39

The reason we have such terrible fires now is that we keep putting out fires when they're small. Nature builds up too much burnable matter over time. Small fires would burn it in small, localized areas. But if the small fires don't happen then we get the massive fires that destroy towns, cities, and cost lives. I am not impressed by a new way to put out small fires, because that just ensures bigger fires in the long…

Alternatively, this allows you to burn when you want to, such as when conditions are favorable to maintain control of the fire. You're correct that preventing large fires is important - control burns must be part of the solution.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#42

Post by JoeAltmaier »

The surveillance and response part is interesting. I can't imagine drones that size can deliver an effective response. Especially if the fire is in a tree crown (lightning strike) and not in a neat bounded campfire ring.

Still, knowing a fire has started is half the battle.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#43

Post by ceejayoz »

Teever wrote: post #40
mabbo wrote: post #39

The reason we have such terrible fires now is that we keep putting out fires when they're small. Nature builds up too much burnable matter over time. Small fires would burn it in small, localized areas. But if the small fires don't happen then we get the massive fires that destroy towns, cities, and cost lives. I am not impressed by a new way to put out small fires, because that just ensures bigger fires in the long…

Quoted post unavailable.

Living near something doesn't make one an expert in that thing. I live near a school, but I'm still fairly worthless as an elementary school teacher or administrator.

The actual experts agree with the parent poster.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/06/how-fore...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/decades-mismanagement-l...

https://www.propublica.org/article/they-know-how-to-prevent-...

https://www.vox.com/2015/9/17/9347361/wildfire-management-pr...

(We could also do what Australia does, and set better standards for buildings and neighborhoods for surviving fires.)

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#44

Post by dillondoyle »

mabbo wrote: post #39

The reason we have such terrible fires now is that we keep putting out fires when they're small. Nature builds up too much burnable matter over time. Small fires would burn it in small, localized areas. But if the small fires don't happen then we get the massive fires that destroy towns, cities, and cost lives. I am not impressed by a new way to put out small fires, because that just ensures bigger fires in the long…

I would be interested to hear from a scientist on a couple questions I've had around this thinking:

I've read that because of this built up material AND dead trees from beetle kill, no water or snow, etc that the fires burn too hot and kill the regenerative seeds. Is this true?

If so how does that factor into the balance of that decision?

And do they take into account the carbon and pollution emitted that's a HUGE net negative? Maybe we can't ever stop them from happening in the first place perhaps it's more flatten the curve

Plus landslides and instability.

I think I've also read burn scars don't absorb and retain as much water - but I'm not as confident in that memory?

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#45

Post by klyrs »

onion2k wrote: post #33
dymk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. People can dream up solutions as much as they want, doesn't mean it's going to work. 99% of startups fail, this one will be no exception to the stats. Sure, they might succeed, but there's no guarantee they'll make it past this super basic PoC.

Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. They're a startup. That's what startups do. If you think they're wasting their time you're really on the wrong website right now.

Most startups fail. Declaring any one a waste of effort is statistically justified. Alternative reason to read HN: a sadistic desire to watch people fail, and say that I told you so.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#48

Post by robomartin »

Yeah. No. As Mr. Wonderful like to say, take it behind the barn and shoot it.

Even a swarm of these cannot compare to the awesome power of small and large (Sikorsky) helicopters as well as medium to large (Boeing 707-class) tanker aircraft attacking a fire.

I have lived in fire country half my life. You NEVER get to fires when it's a convenient pile of logs in the middle of an accessible clearing that a drone can hover 20 feet above to precision drop suppressant balls. The more likely scenario is that, by the time it is detected you have to drop swimming-pool quantities of water or suppressant multiple times. And, of course, let's not even discuss a decent amount of wind and everything that goes with the situational awareness that pilots have.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#49

Post by RangerScience »

Teever wrote: post #40
mabbo wrote: post #39

The reason we have such terrible fires now is that we keep putting out fires when they're small. Nature builds up too much burnable matter over time. Small fires would burn it in small, localized areas. But if the small fires don't happen then we get the massive fires that destroy towns, cities, and cost lives. I am not impressed by a new way to put out small fires, because that just ensures bigger fires in the long…

Quoted post unavailable.

AFAIK, it's now long (40+ years) that (at least on the west coast) periodic small fires are not only beneficial, but necessary, and that the US policy of "stop ALL fires" has been long-term extremely problematic. Mostly the "knowing" of this was finally accepting that the ways of those who originally lived here (first nations / native americans) were, in fact, better, since such periodic burns were the practice of those people.

AFAIK, the CA forest service have been trying to ramp up the number of small, controlled burns, but it's hard to not only get the funding to do it (in part because it's during the off-seasons) but because it's actually really hard to do because of the buildup up underbrush, which is the very problem the periodic burns address.

It's like a tech debt situation. There's enough tech debt that it's making it harder to pay it down.

I absolutely would not be surprised if forests on the east coast respond very differently to these kinds of burns.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#50

Post by hosh »

Neat tech, but I think prescribed burns are probably better for the general health of the forest ecology. Furthermore, prescribed burn uses a smaller tech stack (less dependencies on high tech) and is more resilient to logisitical and tech failures.

Speaking more on resiliency, in permaculture design, wildfire analysis is one of the things you do in a sector analysis when designing a site.

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