New ‘BurnBot’ technology helps to mitigate fire risks | Local News

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.”

Anukool Lakhina, co-founder and CEO of BurnBot Inc., tells us, “It’s an extremely efficient way compared to, for example, using hand crews. There are some things that hand crews are very well suited for, but there’s a lot of backbreaking work that is unsafe and not very efficient to do with hand crews. So where these machines really work is they amplify the capacity of hand crews by allowing them to focus on higher-value pieces.”

He says the bots are 10 to 20 times more efficient than a normal 18-man hand crew, but he clarifies that the bots are meant to do the smaller work while the hand crews deal with the technical work.

Lakhina says, “We look at ourselves as an accelerator. We want to increase the pace and scale of fuels work. We want to amplify the workforce capacity, and if we can get more fuels work done before the next fire season, that’s a win-win-win for everybody.”

Greg Erfani, the president of Tyrolian Village HOA, says these machines mimic nature while mitigating the land.

“It’s a machine that takes in the greenery, mulches it up, burns it, and puts it out as ash.”

Residents mention that in Tahoe it’s not a matter of if there will be a fire, but when.

This also brings up the conversation of how important creating defensible space around your home is so you can stay safe from fires.

Erfani told us his story of losing one of his family members to a fire, which is why he he’s so passionate about this technology.

“That’s why I put in the time, that’s why I wanted to research, and that’s why I did everything that I could to get this program into our community – because I want to reduce the risk so none of my neighbors or my friends have to ever go through what my family went through.”

BurnBots have two different machine types: the first is a masticator that mulches vegetation, and the second is a true burn bot that can burn and extinguish fires.

North Lake Tahoe Fire is hoping to have a BurnBot demo in the fall that can conduct prescribed burns.