Global Wildfire Watch — Major Incidents 2021–2026
Connecting to live wildfire intelligence…
⚠ Damage estimates from official agency reports & verified sources
1.4M
ha burned in Canada (2026 YTD)
3.6M
acres burned in US (2026 YTD)
major active incidents tracked
48
large fires active in US
$200B+
global damages since 2021
🔴 Currently Active Major Incidents
Fire / Region Location Started Status Area (ha) Est. Damage Deaths Evacuated Source

All figures sourced from government agency reports (NIFC, CIFFC, EFFIS), peer-reviewed analysis (Nature Reviews Earth & Environment), and verified news sources (Reuters, BBC, CBC). Damage estimates are approximations; final insured losses differ from total economic losses. Active fire perimeters change continuously. FireSense AI does not operate or manage these data sources and provides this section as public context only.   NIFC   CIFFC   EFFIS

Patent Pending · July 2026

Detect Wildfires
Before They Spread

The first ground-based system to see a fire at one mile range — autonomously, without power infrastructure, without cellular coverage.

1 mi
Detection range
<5 sec
Alert latency
$0
Infrastructure needed
The Problem

The window to stop a wildfire
is minutes, not hours.

Wildfires ignite small. A campfire-sized flame, caught in the first ten minutes, can be contained. The same fire, undetected for an hour, can become a catastrophe. Today's detection systems can't reach wildland terrain where fires start.

$150B
Economic losses from the Jan 2025 California fires alone
72M
Americans living in wildland-urban interface risk zones
1B+ ac
Acres burned globally in 2024
$894B
Estimated annual US wildfire economic burden
Why Current Systems Fail
  • Satellites
    90-minute orbital gaps. Fires spread in 10 minutes. Cloud cover causes missed detections at critical ignition moments.
  • Camera Tower Systems
    Require AC power and cellular backhaul. Cannot be deployed in the remote wildland terrain where fires actually start.
  • Gas Sensor Networks
    Detection physics limits range to approximately 100 meters. Gas diffusion cannot be overcome with additional hardware.
  • Military-Grade Thermal
    $5,000–$20,000 per unit. Structural cost floor prevents deployment at the scale wildland terrain demands.
The Lighthouse

One node. Two detection tiers.
Zero infrastructure.

FireSense AI's Lighthouse Node combines an omnidirectional close-range sensor constellation with a long-range directional thermal imaging system — in a single solar-powered unit deployable anywhere in under an hour.

⬡ Tier 1 · Constellation
0 – 100 m
Omnidirectional · Instant

A sphere-mounted array of solid-state infrared sensors provides full 360° thermal awareness with no moving parts. Close-range ignitions trigger an alert in under 5 seconds.

  • Zero blind spots — full hemispheric coverage
  • Solid-state reliability — no moving parts
  • Sub-5-second detection latency
  • Operates day and night, through rain
◎ Tier 2 · Lighthouse Scope
100 m – 1 mile
Directional · 60-second sweep

A motorized long-range thermal imaging system continuously scans the full 360° horizon at multiple elevation angles. Our patent-pending optical breakthrough enables one-mile detection for a fraction of the cost of military thermal systems.

  • 1-meter fire detectable at 1 mile — physics validated
  • Pan-tilt raster scan: azimuth 360° + elevation ±30°
  • Wind-sensor-weighted scan priority
  • Patent-pending optical design
☀️
Solar Autonomous
Zero external power. 10+ year field life.
📡
LoRa + Satellite
Off-grid comms. No cellular required.
Deploy in Hours
No permits, no trenching, no power install.
🔗
Mesh Network
Multi-node corroboration. Near-zero false positives.
Why It Works

A breakthrough in
infrared optics

Long-range thermal detection has historically required expensive cooled detector systems costing tens of thousands of dollars. Our patent-pending optical architecture achieves equivalent performance using a fundamentally different material science approach — bringing one-mile thermal detection within reach of distributed ground deployment.

Validated Performance
Detection range Up to 1.6 km (1 mile)
Minimum detectable source 1-meter fire at max range
Imaging resolution Sub-0.1° per pixel
Spectral band Long-wave infrared (LWIR)
Scan cycle (full hemisphere) 5 minutes · 5 elevation layers
Cost vs military equivalent 50× lower
🔬
Novel Material Science
Proprietary use of IR-transmissive polymer optics enables long-range focusing at commodity cost — a breakthrough no previous system has applied to wildfire detection.
🏗️
Dual-Tier Architecture
Combining instant close-range sensing with directed long-range scanning in one solar node is a patented system design — not replicable by adding capabilities to existing products.
💨
Wind-Aware Scanning
Integrated wind sensing biases the scan schedule toward upwind sectors — prioritizing where ignition is most likely to propagate into protected terrain.
🛡️
Multi-Node Corroboration
Alerts require confirmation from two or more independent nodes within a 60-second window, virtually eliminating false positives without reducing sensitivity.
How It Works

From ignition to alert in minutes

A mesh of Lighthouse Nodes shares thermal intelligence continuously. When two or more nodes detect the same thermal signature, a confirmed alert is dispatched via satellite — reaching fire crews anywhere on Earth.

01
Detect
Tier 1 constellation and Tier 2 scope independently identify thermal anomalies in their respective detection zones.
02
Corroborate
Two or more nodes must confirm the same signature within 60 seconds. Single-node events remain as watch events.
03
Locate
Azimuth bearing, elevation angle, and GPS coordinates from each node triangulate the fire's exact position.
04
Alert
Confirmed alerts reach fire crews via satellite IoT in under 60 seconds — from any terrain, without cellular coverage.
Market Opportunity
$7.4B
Projected market by 2034 · 13.6% CAGR

A proven category.
An unserved gap.

Investors have put $89M into camera-based wildfire detection alone — proving the appetite is real. FireSense AI occupies the terrain those systems physically cannot reach: the off-grid wildland where fires actually start.

Category validation
Pano AI (camera-based) $89M raised
Dryad Networks (gas sensors) $6M+ raised
OroraTech (satellite) Funded, 8-sat constellation
FireSense AI (ground LWIR) Raising seed round
Target Segments
  • 🏢
    Insurance Companies
    Safer from Wildfires regulation creates insurer mandate to offer detection-linked premium discounts. Liberty Mutual, Tokio Marine, Travelers.
  • Electric Utilities
    CPUC Wildfire Mitigation Plan mandates require PG&E, SCE, SDG&E to deploy detection along high-risk transmission corridors.
  • 🏛️
    Government & Forestry
    CAL FIRE, USFS, and county governments seek scalable ground-truth detection to complement aerial and satellite assets.
  • 🌾
    Private Landowners
    Ranchers, vineyards, campgrounds, and high-value rural properties with no existing detection coverage.
  • 🛡️
    Defense & Critical Infrastructure
    Military installations, national laboratories, and critical infrastructure in wildland-urban interface zones.
About FireSense AI

Built on deep technical foundations

FireSense AI is developed by a California-based engineering team with over 15 years of experience designing advanced RF and sensing systems for defense and commercial applications.

Years of RF & Sensor Engineering
Our team's background in adaptive arrays, precision sensing, and defense hardware provides the engineering depth to tackle a problem that has stumped consumer IoT approaches.
Ground-Based 1-Mile Thermal at This Price Point
To our knowledge, no commercially available ground-based system achieves thermal fire detection at one mile range below $500 per unit. FireSense AI's patent-pending design changes that.
Intellectual Property

A provisional patent application was filed in July 2026 covering the dual-tier detection architecture and the novel long-range optical system independently. The application is confidential and has not been published. A non-provisional application is planned within 12 months. Technology details on this site are intentionally high-level.

Company details
🏢 FireSense AI — California deep-tech startup
📍 California, United States
🔬 Registered US small business
🛡️ Defense technology heritage & hardware expertise
📋 Provisional patent filed July 2026
💼 SBIR-eligible · Non-dilutive grant pathways
🌐 firesense-ai.com
Validation approach

All performance claims are derived from optical physics first principles and validated against the infrared detection equation, using the published specifications of commercial LWIR sensor arrays.

Hardware prototyping is underway. Field validation data will be published following first pilot deployment. We do not publish unverified claims.

Get Involved

Join the Early Access Program

We are building partnerships with insurance companies, utilities, and municipalities ahead of our first field pilot. Request early access or partnership information.

No spam. We will respond with partnership and pilot information only.
Or email us directly: info@firesense-ai.com