As California wildfire season nears, startup BurnBot is working on a high-tech approach to prevention

Last
year’s
record
heat
wave
worsened
drought
and
dry
conditions
across
the
globe,
a
particularly
calamitous
situation
for
California,
which
has
seen
13
of
the
state’s
20

most
destructive
wildfires
in
history
break
out
since
2017.

In
South
San
Francisco,
a
small
startup
is
working
on
a
high-tech
approach
to
wildfire
prevention.

Anukool
Lakhina
and
Waleed “Lee”
Haddad
founded
BurnBot
in
2022
to
develop
robotics
and
remote-controlled
vehicles
that
can
munch
up
and
burn
away
invasive
plants
or
other
dry
vegetation
that
can
fuel
fires
if
left
fallow.

BurnBot
has
just
raised
a
$20
million
funding
round
led
by
climate-focused
ReGen
Ventures,
for
expansion,
hiring,
and
to
develop
new
machines
that
can
traverse
steeper
hills
and
get
into
tighter
spaces.

Before
BurnBot,
firefighters
and
land
owners
had
to
use
expensive,
time-consuming
and
more
dangerous
options
like
grazing
away
the
vegetation
(typically
with
goats),
burning
it,
applying
herbicides
or
removing
vegetation
mechanically
with
a
mix
of
equipment
and
manual
labor.

“The
sort
of
traditional
way
to
do
a
prescribed
burn
is
with
drip
torches,
and
that
requires
a
large
number
of
people,”
said
Lakhina,
BurnBot’s
CEO. “A
drip
torch
is
like
a
diesel
watering
can.
You
go
around,
you
drop
diesel,
then
ignite
it.”

Burnbot’s
current
model,
the
RX,
is
a
remote-operated
vehicle
that
looks
a
cross
between
an
oversized
Zamboni
and
a
steel
cooking
range
with
a
set
of
fire
extinguishers
strapped
to
its
back.
Like
other
agricultural
and
construction
equipment,
the
RX
rolls
forward
on
tank-like
tracks
and
wheels,
which
enable
it
to
maneuver
through
rough
fields.

Within
the
chambers
of
the
RX
are
several
rows
of
torches
that
emit
blue
flames,
and
adjust
the
heat
levels
precisely
to
zap
away
unwanted
vegetation
or
other
fuels
on
the
ground
below.
The
chambers
of
the
BurnBot
RX
also
trap
and
torch
away
the
smoke
that
comes
from
burning
vegetation,
so
it
doesn’t
pollute
the
air
in
surrounding
communities.
When
the
torching
is
done,
the
RX
sprays
water
repeatedly
to
extinguish
any
remaining
embers.

Lakhina
said
BurnBot’s
systems
can
be
put
to
use
where
traditional
controlled
burns
won’t
work.
For
example,
drip
torch
burns
produce
a
good
deal
of
smoke,
which
is
conductive
enough
it
would
interfere
with
the
proper
functioning
of
power
lines
or
high-voltage
equipment.
BurnBot’s
machines
can
be
used
even
under
power
lines.

The
company
is
aiming
to
make
every
person
who
works
in
fire
prevention
10
times
more
effective
than
they
were
with
old
methods,
Lakhina
said.

Haddad,
BurnBot’s
chief
technology
officer,
noted
that
land
isn’t
always
ready
to “receive
fire”
in
a
prescribed
burn.
So
the
company
has
programmed
equipment,
which
it
procures
from
another
supplier,
to
roll
ahead
of
the
RX
to
crunch
up
the
vegetation
in
an
area
of
concern
before
it’s
ready
for
torching.

BurnBot
plans
to
conduct
a
prescribed
burn
this
Friday
in
San
Diego,
a
project
for
CalTrans,
the
state’s
transportation
agency.
It
also
plans
for
another
burn
for


Pacific
Gas
&
Electric,
the
state’s
major
utility,
in
June.

PG&E
spends
upward
of
$1
billion
on “vegetation
management”
each
year.
Kevin
Johnson,
who
leads
the
company’s
Wildfire Resilience
Partnerships,
said
PG&E
is
always “looking
for
opportunities
to
do
this
work
safer,
faster,
cheaper
and
to
be
more
environmentally
friendly.”
 

BurnBot
has
already
completed
one
demonstration
of
its
controlled
burn
machine
underneath
PG&E
transmission
lines.

Brice
Muenzer,
a
battalion
chief
with
CalFire
in
Monterey,
California,
said
massive
fires
in
the
state
and
throughout
the
U.S.
over
the
past
decade
have
been
partly
caused
and
certainly
exacerbated
by
overzealous
elimination
of
smaller
fires,
including
ritual
fires
from
indigenous
communities.

“We
removed
fire
from
the
ecosystem
for
the
last
150
years
and
are
living
through
that
reality
now,”
the
chief
said.

CalFire
has
worked
with
BurnBot
personnel,
machines
and
additional
drones
overhead,
to
create
what’s
known
as
a
control
line
in
the
field
in
at
least
one
location.
Muenzer
says
the
group
hopes
to
do
more
with
the
startup.

Creating
a
control
line,
or
blacklining
the
land,
involves
firefighters
strategically
burning
areas
when
the
weather
is
calm
and
where
flames
can
be
controlled
to
create
scars
that
will
block
other
fires
from
jumping
in
and
reaching
areas
with
lots
of
new
material
to
burn.

BurnBot
aims
to
eventually
expand
its
operations
beyond
California,
with
offices
and
fleets
of
its
machines
wherever
vegetation
management
is
needed
and
wildfire
risk
is
highest.

“There
are
50
million
acres
that
the
U.S.
Forest
Service
has
said
need
treatment
every
year
and
that’s
just
forest
land,”
said
Lakhina.
In
the
U.S.
there
are
237
million
acres
that
need
treatment
overall.
And
grazing
can
cost
$1,000
an
acre.”

Childrens’
health
is
at
stake
along
with
property
and
healthy
forests,
Lakhina
added.
According
to
the

Harvard
School
of
Public
Health,
wildfire
smoke
can
be
more
toxic
than air
pollution
from
other
sources,
leading
to
more
emergency
room
visits,
especially
for
children
who
are
exposed.

Because
BurnBot
offers
greater
precision
than
grazing,
herbicides
and
mechanical
removal,
its
systems
should
prove
ecologically
more
beneficial
as
well,
Haddad
said.
The
BurnBot
RX
is
able
to
help
prevent
the
spread
of
seeds
from
invasive
species,
for
example,
without
causing
any
of
those
species
to
develop
resistance
to
an
herbicide.

ReGen
was
joined
in
BurnBot’s
funding
round
by
investors
including
AmFam
Ventures,
which
is
the
venture
arm
of
an
insurance
company,
Toyota
Ventures,
and
earlier
backers
including
robotics
fund
Pathbreaker,
Convective
Capital
and
Chris
Sacca’s
Lowercarbon
Capital.

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