VIDEO/PHOTOS: In 2021, during a summer vacation in Boston, friends Barrett Deng and Sebastien Burkhardt witnessed something familiar to anyone living in the Bay Area: skies filled with smoke from nearby or distant wildfires. The smoke hovering over the East Coast had been blown there from wildfires burning in Canada. The experience opened the teensโ eyes to just how big a problem wildfires are. โWe realized this was not just a California issue,โ Deng said.ย In true Silicon Valley fashion, Deng, 17, and Burkhardt, 18, headed into a garage to invent something that could help in the fight against wildfires.
