VIDEO: Several fire and utility agencies in the Tahoe Basin gathered to watch a demonstration of new firefighting technology called the BurnBot. The BurnBot is remote-operated technology that helps to reduce fire-prone vegetation in neighborhoods. Officials refer to this new pilot program as being fire smart.
Ryan Sommers, the fire chief for the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, explains, “If we were to have a wildland fire incident after this work is complete, we can actually come in and extinguish that fire. It’s more manageable from the inception of the fire to our response time to get on scene, and this will definitely reduce the risk of it becoming a catastrophic fire and it becoming too big that it’s not controllable.”
North Lake Tahoe Fire has always had a fuels program for the last 20 years run by hand crews. The BurnBot can treat 22 acres in three days on a steep slope, which would take hand crews two weeks to complete. Sommers says, “Bringing in the technology like this is going to pick up our pace in scale immensely.”
