Torch Startup Says Its Outdoor Sensors Can Help Snuff Out Wildfires

The Torch sensor measures thermal, visible and chemical signs of fire.

If you live in North America, you’ve probably noticed air quality alerts due to drifting smoke from ongoing Canadian wildfires. Leaders with a startup in California (a state with its own wildfire problems) say they’re rolling out solar-powered smart outdoor monitors later this year that can detect small fires before they turn into wild ones.

The startup, called Torch, is taking preorders for its first batch of 100,000 detectors at $299 each. They plan to begin shipments in the fourth quarter, targeting homeowners and agencies, says Michael Buckwald, CEO and co-founder.

Torch detectors, about the size and shape of a large coffee cup, can be placed every 10 acres and detect a fire “very early, to the point where a regular person could go and put out the fire,” Buckwald explains.

“That is the missing piece of the fire puzzle, because fires are being detected far too late and by that time they’ve turned into these massive conflagrations.”

Buckwald and Vasya Tremsin, co-founder and chief operating officer, say they want to replicate the success of indoor smoke detectors for thwarting outdoor fires. “Whether that means getting a garden hose and putting it out that way or calling the fire department—in both cases, early is everything,” Buckwald says.

The growth of the“wildland-urban interface” has created more potential for wildfires, he says.

The U.S. Forest Service says that interface, where houses and other development meet or mix with undeveloped natural areas, now includes more than 44 million homes, a 47% increase from 1990 to 2020.

Besides homeowners, potential Torch customers include everyone from federal, state and city governments to insurance companies which could distribute the devices to customers or offer discounts for their use, the company says.

A representative from the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety declined comment on Torch’s technology. But Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber told a San Francisco ABC News affiliate that such a hi-tech fire detector “would help us either modify our response, enhance our response, change our response based on real-time information of a fire spread.”

The hospitality industry, agriculture and vineyards also could find the systems useful, Buckwald says.

Each unit includes a solar panel, infrared cameras, gas sensors and a visible camera.

Tremsin explains that every Torch sensor uses AI and looks for a variety of variables, including temperature, humidity, gas and thermal heat signals.

“We can separate a flame from something that’s not a flame based on the spatial characteristics of the flame,” he says. The information is passed along wirelessly from the sensors to an app on your smartphone, tablet or desktop; the units use radio waves to communicate so they can operate in remote environments without wireless or cellular service.

Other startups using AI sensors to detect and prevent wildfires include Dryad of Germany and Robotics Cats in Hong Kong.

Buckwald says the Torch systems have undergone 50-plus tests over the last three years, mostly in California during prescribed burns.

Torch says its $299 devices are an improvement and alternative to existing methods like expensive hilltop camera systems and human spotters in lookout towers. Those methods are helpful for detecting mid-sized fires, but not small ones that can quickly get out of control. Satellites also are used for spotting wildfires, but you can imagine they might not detect the little ones either.

Torch units are being made in a Taiwan factory. A total of 100,000 will be produced for preorders that go out in the fourth quarter, Buckwald says.

“Hopefully, we can move the needle in terms of the numbers of fires happening (around the world),” he says. “If the climate trends continue, it will definitely continue to be a problem.”