Fighting Fire With Innovation: The Patent Race Behind Wildfire Drones

This summer, smoke from Canada’s wildfires has spread hundreds of miles south, blanketing the Northeast in an orange haze and causing cities far away from the actual flames to activate their air quality emergency protocols. Residents in affected areas have been advised to stay indoors while first responders bravely battle these fires. Daily mobilization of firefighters and fire pumps continues to be the main response to combat wildfires.

However, as fire seasons start earlier, last longer, and become harder to contain, a less visible response is taking shape: a race to develop and implement new technologies capable of early wildfire detection, providing real-time updates, and even preventing the further spread of a wildfire. These new technologies may form a whole new response to combatting these disasters and are reshaping how wildfires are being monitored and managed. However, even less visible is the race behind those new technologies taking place at the United States Patent and