Articles about Wildfires

Spokane startup Blaze Barrier heats up with new funding for quick-deploy wildfire defense system

Blaze Barrier was born out of founder and CEO Jacob Schuler’s desire to give firefighters and homeowners a quick-acting tool to fight wildfires beyond digging suppression lines by hand. Read More

From ash to assets: Seattle’s Mast proves buried biomass from wildfires can fund forest recovery

Seattle’s Mast Reforestation has engineered a solution for disposing trees destroyed in wildfires, locking away their carbon and helping recover the damaged woods. Read More

Wildfire recovery and carbon capture company Mast Reforestation lands $25M

Seattle’s Mast Reforestation announced today $25 million in new funding and an expansion of its operations into “wood vaulting” in… Read More

T-Mobile support truck on LA street with fire-lit sky in background

T-Mobile makes satellite texting available through SpaceX’s Starlink for LA amid fires

T-Mobile has opened up direct-to-cellular emergency texting over SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network on a temporary basis in areas affected by… Read More

Zillow adds climate risk data to its real estate listings

Real estate listings on Zillow now include details about a property’s climate risks and whether natural disaster insurance is critical… Read More

Severe wildfires are difficult to control – but one research model shows ‘a better way forward’

As swaths of wildlands are being scorched and communities smoked out by another unusually hot, dry summer, researchers in Washington… Read More

Microsoft AI tool reveals swath of devastation from Maui wildfire

In Maui’s historic town of Lahaina, more than half of the community’s 2,810 buildings have been damaged by a wildfire… Read More

Wildfire startup puts AI-powered eyes in the forest to watch for new blazes and provide rapid alerts

You don’t put out a wildfire with water and flame retardants like you do a burning house. You contain it… Read More

Bill Gates-backed startup aims to fight wildfires, drawing on expertise of ex-Amazon drone leader and aviation execs

Data Blanket is a new startup out of the Seattle area developing small fleets of AI-powered drones that can perform… Read More

Wildfire restoration startup DroneSeed creates parent brand, acquires California’s largest tree seed supplier

DroneSeed, a Seattle startup using technology to help restore forests scorched by wildfire, announced Tuesday that it is now operating… Read More

A modern Johnny Appleseed: Meet the Seattle drone startup replanting forests after wildfires

A swarm of giant drones navigates a scorched moonscape, tracing the rugged topography. The scene has a desolate, sci-fi vibe… Read More

New interactive tool using satellites and AI creates more precise wildfire maps for public, firefighters

Anxiety-inducing images of skies hazy from wildfires and hillsides set ablaze are increasingly popping up on my Twitter feed and… Read More

Wildfire forecast: How to stay safe and what to expect this summer in the Pacific Northwest

If you were in the Pacific Northwest during last September’s super smoky wildfires, it was a miserable, apocalyptic-hued experience that… Read More

Why smoke, why? What happened to the promise of clearer skies in Seattle come Monday

Waking up Saturday morning, my window blinds glowed with a ghoulish yellow thanks to the blanket of wildfire smoke that… Read More

White House issues grim Black Friday outlook for wildfires and more climate woe

If current climate trends continue, the Pacific Northwest will have more summer wildfires, less winter snowpack and smaller numbers of… Read More

As Seattle’s smoke clears, experts weigh what’s ahead for Pacific Northwest skies

After enduring days of record-setting, eye-watering levels of smoke in the air, the Seattle area is in for relief, thanks… Read More

Across Seattle, social media looks more like smoke signals as users share images of hazy skies

That’s not another blurry sunset photo or video from your friend on Facebook or Instagram, that’s August, again, in Seattle… Read More

Policymakers tout high-tech tools for addressing Northwest’s wildfire crisis

The smoky skies over Seattle have cleared up somewhat, but the Pacific Northwest’s wildfires continue to burn — prompting pledges from… Read More

A ‘perfect storm’ of wildfires puts Seattle’s terrible air quality in the record books

If this week’s smoky skies seem unprecedented, that’s not far wrong: Thanks to an unusually unfortunate weather pattern, Seattle just… Read More

California officials warn against use of navigation apps steering drivers to empty (burning) streets

Navigating the Los Angeles area and avoiding traffic is a difficult enough proposition, but it must be especially scary this… Read More

Even weather gurus are gobsmacked by Northwest’s wildfires and ash fall

Texas has its floods, Florida has a potentially catastrophic hurricane coming its way, but the Pacific Northwest has its own… Read More

Boeing drone subsidiary Insitu joins new partnership to track wildfires day and night

There’s new cause for hope in the fight against wildfires, and it involves Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary that’s headquartered in Bingen,… Read More

High-tech aerial photos reveal neighborhoods decimated by Alberta wildfires

Wildfire is spreading aggressively through Alberta, Canada, damaging hundreds of thousands of hectares along its path. Emergency management officials in Alberta… Read More

Satellites reveal just how bad the wildfires are in Alberta’s oil-sand country

Canadian firefighters are still struggling to get a handle on wide-ranging wildfires in Alberta’s oil-sand country, and satellite images are… Read More

Boeing drone helps fight Washington state wildfires in latest demonstration of UAV technology

Insitu, the Boeing subsidiary that makes unmanned aircraft systems, is helping emergency responders in Washington State as they work to tame wildfires… Read More