Spreading Like Wildfire

Twenty years ago, George Carlson wanted to rig up propane pumps to pull lake water into heavy-duty sprinkler heads, then spray it over buildings and yards. Some scoffed, but Carlson was sure sprinklers could fight wildfires. A few years later, in 2007, the Ham Lake Fire roared out of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and into the Gunflint Trail area of northeastern Minnesota. The fire was big by Minnesota standards: 76,000 acres, much of it in the federal wilderness. Around the Gunflint Trail, the fire consumed 133 structures, including an outfitting business, and 61 residences. The roughly 60 buildings that survived? All had sprinklers.

“The numbers were incredible,” said Carlson, whose wildfire sprinkler company installs and services hundreds of properties in Minnesota and several western states. “The buildings with sprinkler systems didn’t burn. There were birds at the feeders and green leaves, where just a few feet away, outside the perimeter, aluminum boats melted.” 

Today, exterior sprinkler systems are being deployed to protect entire cities in Europe. In Canada, insurers are partnering with sprinkler installation companies to protect properties with moveable, temporary sprinklers. In Australia, where bushfires have devastated east coast communities, sprinklers are being installed in record numbers. This year, sprinkler systems in Yosemite saved giant sequoias. 

Harry Statter is the founder and chief executive of Frontline Wildfire Defense, a Wyoming-based sprinkler installation company that is leveraging software to expand sprinkler capability with wildfire tracking and timing. The trained ecologist has made wildfire his passion and property self-defense sprinkler systems his work. “Fire is a natural process. We tried to live with fire by suppressing it for more than 100 years,” he said, referring to the Weeks Act of 1911 that effectively made fire suppression national policy. “We’ve learned to live with rain. We’ve learned to live with snow. Now we have to learn to live with wildfire.” 

But there’s a new normal around wildfire. Fires are hotter and faster, burning each summer for weeks and even months, some until winter snow. Limited resources and the enormity of the fires mean that property owners must create a first line of defense, and even be prepared to act before wildland firefighters arrive. Traditionally, homeowners and emergency managers have focused on “hardening” homes and buildings. By creating defensible spaces –– essentially creating a small firebreak — wildfire can be slowed or even stopped in some cases. These defensible spaces also provide firefighters with a safe area from which to defend a building. In certain areas of California, a defensible space is no longer a choice but a requirement. Devastating wildfire seasons have driven rapid policy change, prompting a new state law requiring some homeowners to create a 100-foot defensible space around their homes. 

More recently, a new generation of homes — even communities — are being built with fire-resistant materials and fire-smart landscaping: windows made to withstand the intense heat of fire; concrete and stucco exterior applications that offer a one-hour fire rating; hardscapes that replace grass with pavers or rocks.  

Homeowners and communities looking for advice and instruction can turn to Firewise, a federally-funded program that helps homeowners adapt with step-by-step instructions for house hardening. The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network offers to support and connect communities working on wildfire resilience. 

“It’s a big picture, of which sprinklers are just one part of the solution,” Harry Statter said. “This is what we need to think about. The acres we need to burn to restore ecological balance is one metric. The other metric is the potential loss of homes and communities. The firefighter-to-structure ratio is a huge mismatch. We have to make a shift in the way we have historically addressed wildfire.”

Fire — like water — follows the path of least resistance. Humidity and wet fuel divert fire. Sprinklers douse buildings, wood piles, outbuildings, and even lawn furniture, preventing far-flying embers from getting a start miles in front of an advancing fire. “Walking into a humidity bubble” is how firefighters describe it, where the temperature drops and everything is moist and green.

Where water is plentiful, sprinklers simply draw water from a lake or creek. Carlson had ample water to work with — Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, after all. He designed his first system to create two inches of precipitation over 24 hours. As stand-alone systems, the propane pumps were able to stay active even when the electrical grid went down. 

In western regions, such as where Statter lives in Wyoming, water is not so readily available. So instead of using water, sprinklers cover homes in a spray of a biodegradable, non-toxic foam. At Stanford University, scientists are working on a gel that could protect an area for months. 

Lived experience and science show that, when properly installed and maintained, exterior sprinklers can be extremely effective in protecting not only the built structure but also the trees and vegetation within the sprinkler area. However, they’re not cheap. When Carlson and the Gunflint Trail community got started, 

FEMA offered federal Hazard Mitigation Grants that paid for up to 75 percent of installation costs. Those grants have since dried up. Carlson estimates that it would cost around $15,000 to cover a few buildings and an acre of forest. Statter said his prices are dependent on site requirements. For many, these costs are prohibitive. Yet, as both Carlson and Stater point out, they’re a lot less expensive than losing your home. 

DIYers can check out the Gunflint Trail Fire Volunteer Fire Department’s website, which offers instructions and parts lists. Their “Ten Commandments of Sprinklers” offers valuable advice for taking on such a project. 

“We have to let fire do its thing,” Statter said. “We need to have these conversations and look at the tools we have to live with fire in the urban-wildfire interface. Sprinklers are low-cost, effective answers to a very expensive, expanding problem. People and fire inhabit the same ecosystems. We really don’t have a choice.”