Comment by westurner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by westurner | Hacker News Reader

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Wildfire suppression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire_suppression#Tactics

History of wildfire suppression in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wildfire_suppressio...

Controlled burn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_burn

> A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, [1] backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, [2] is a fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, fire suppression, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. A controlled burn may also refer to the intentional burning of slash and fuels through burn piles. [3] Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for foresters.

Hydrogel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogel

Aerogel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel

Water-based batteries have less fire risk FWIU

"1,000% Difference: Major Storage Capacity in Water-Based Batteries Found" (2023) https://scitechdaily.com/1000-difference-major-storage-capac...

> The metal-free water-based batteries are unique from those that utilize cobalt in their lithium-ion form. The research group’s focus on this type of battery stems from a desire for greater control over the domestic supply chain as cobalt and lithium are commonly sourced from outside the country. Additionally, the batteries’ safer chemistry could prevent fires.

That's a good list of useful links. From my experience as a home owner in a high-risk area, I'd add some of the things which can make a big difference are often surprisingly simple. In addition to managing your own land properly, make sure you have a large enough water tank to support firefighters in protecting your land. We got a well tank five times bigger than our typical usage needs. Another key thing is to put your tank next to where a fire truck can access it easily and get the proper adapter installed so the fire truck can direct connect to your tank (it's not included in most).

We also widened the access road on our property to support larger fire trucks and dozers. Obviously, fire-resistant construction materials and techniques are a huge help and not all require extensive retrofitting. There are spark resistant attic air access covers which are easy to install. We needed to re-roof and remodel anyway so we went with fire-resistant roofing and concrete siding. It's also important to have non-cellular local communications because the cell towers often go out first (our community uses 2-meter handsets for emergency comms). Doing those things along with the fact we've cleared all trees and brush out beyond 300 feet and only have metal out-buildings caused our local fire chief to comment that if everyone did what we've done, protecting the whole region would be three times easier. We also have enough generator power (on auto-failover) to pump our own well water to wet down our house and surroundings. With that our house has a really strong probability of surviving with no external help even if our property is directly hit by a major wildfire.

Edit to Add: I forgot to mention another key thing. If you live in a place like this, there's often only a single narrow public road serving your property and others nearby. Make sure you have transportation that'll let you get out cross-country if the road is blocked by either fire or heavy equipment. We have AWD ATVs fueled and always ready to go (plus they are handy around big properties like this). Between us and our neighbors we have a plan to get everyone on our road out without outside help - including a few elderly folk who will need assistance. Firefighters needing to rescue unprepared residents diverts vital resources from fighting the fire and clogs roads - which just makes everything else worse.

Great comments and advice. My neighborhood burned in the #GlassFire [0]. While our property was severely damaged, our home survived, due to many of the hardening techniques you mentioned and great work by CalFire. We had evacuated the night before and were staying in a local hotel watching the flames advance on our house via our security cameras. (Redundant net connections and a generator kept everything online). As our deck started to burn I called 911 to report it, figuring nothing would happen. About 20 minutes later a fireman walked into the frame of the camera and 2 minutes later the deck was out and the house was saved. I was cheering like I won the Super Bowl. So I really appreciate all the hardening I did, on-site water and CalFire.

When we rebuilt the exterior, I installed a set of sprinklers that ring the house and cover the roof/deck. They are not designed to fight the fire, instead I can activate them before a fire arrives to get things good and wet. This perimeter reduces the available fuels, reduces the heat load on the structure and reduces the risk of ember cast. It was a fun project with an ESP controller to sequence the valves and provide remote control.

Over the last few years, the Alert Wildfire Camera system, now over 700 cameras, has been a valuable resource. [1] Early detection of the fire, before it grows to extreme size has made a big difference. In the North Bay of California last year, this early detection and CalFire having nearby Air Attack resources on standby kept many small fires from becoming large ones in this area.

Another great resource is the Watch Duty app. [2] This is a non-profit, volunteer, but extremely professional service. They started in Northern California and are rapidly expanding. It is the go-to resource for Wildfire related information in the area.

Lastly, if anyone is looking at the X prize for satellite detection, I’d spend some time researching MODIS/VIIRS data products from NASA. [3]. A good starting point in some of the challenges of wildfire detection from space.

[0]. Fire tornado outside my window. https://youtu.be/1tZjWqh3-EU

[1]. https://www.alertwildfire.org/

[2]. https://www.watchduty.org/

[3]. https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/

> a set of sprinklers that ring the house and cover the roof/deck. They are not designed to fight the fire, instead I can activate them before a fire arrives to get things good and wet. This perimeter reduces the available fuels, reduces the heat load on the structure and reduces the risk of ember cast. It was a fun project with an ESP controller to sequence the valves and provide remote control.

I searched a bit and couldn't find any smart home integrations that automatically hopefully turn the lawn and garden sprinklers on when a fire alarm goes off.

Are there any good reasons to not have that be a standard default feature if both smoke detectors and sprinklers are connected to a smart home system?

Coming from an operations perspective, you want to look at the downstream consequences of automation which depend on the details of the installed system. E.g. from this thread: automation might drain water from the 5x oversized well tank before firefighters arrive, seems to me that whether or not that is preferable depends on the details.

TIL about building materials and fire hazard:

Fire resistance rating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-resistance_rating

R-value: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-value_(insulation)

Here's a prompt to help with selecting sustainable building materials: """Generate a JSON-LD document of data with citations comparing building materials by: R-value, Fire Resistance Rating, typical structural integrity longevity in terms of years, VOCs at year 1 and year 5, and Sustainability factors like watt-hours and carbon and other pollutive outputs to produce, transport, distribute, install, and maintain . Include hempcrete (hemp and lime, which can be made from algae), rammed earth with and without shredded hemp hurds, wood, structural concrete, bamboo, and other emerging sustainable building materials.

Demonstrate loading the JSON data into a Pandas DataFrame and how to sort by multiple columns (with references to the docs for the tools used), and how to load the data into pygwalker."""

> Hydrogel

From https://twitter.com/westurner/status/1572664456210948104 :

>> What about #CO² -based #hydrogels for fire fighting?

>> /? Hydrogel firefighting (2022) https://www.google.com/search?q=hydrogel+firefighting […]

>> IDEA: How to make #hydrogels (and #aerogels) from mostly just {air*, CO², algae, shade, and sunshine,} [on earth, and eventually in space,]?

> Aerogel

From https://twitter.com/westurner/status/1600820322567041024 :

> Problem: #airogel made of CO² is an excellent insulator that's useful for many applications; but it needs structure, so foam+airogel but that requires smelly foam

> Possible solution: Cause structure to form in the airogel.

Backpack shoulder straps on e.g. Jansport backpacks have a geometric rubber mesh that's visible through a plastic window.

## Possible methods of causing structure to form in aerogel

- EM Hz: literally play EM waves (and possibly deliberately inverse convolutions) at the {#airogel,} production process

- Titratation

- Centrifugation

- "Volt grid": apply volts/amps/Hz patterns with a probe array

- Thermal/photonic bath 3d printing

- Pour a lattice-like lens as large as the aerogel sections and allow solar to cause it to slowly congeal to a more structural form in advantageous shapes

- Die-casting, pressure-injection molding

> Water-based batteries have less fire risk FWIU

CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage and Gravitational potential energy storage also have less fire risk then Lithium Ion batteries.

FWIU we already have enough abandoned mines in the world to do all of our energy storage needs?

Could CAES tanks filled with air+CO² help suppress wildfire?

> FWIU we already have enough abandoned mines in the world to do all of our energy storage needs?

Here's a prompt for this one, for the AI:

"Let's think step-by-step: how much depth or volume of empty mines are needed to solve for US energy storage demand with gravitational potential energy storage drones on or off tracks in abandoned mines? Please respond with constants and code as Python SymPy code with a pytest test_main and Hypothesis @given decorator tests"

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