HoZe Solutions GmbH

#10Tanker is peace-out after this #VLAT drop at the #PalisadesFire in #LosAngeles. There have been many questions about why more aircraft weren’t operational on Day 1. While there are several reasons, this video highlights one of the primary considerations. Although I’m unsure of the specific operational details of what happened here, it underscores the critical importance of maintaining a safety margin in these inherently hazardous operations. This margin allows crews to safely manage abnormal and emergency procedures without the added risks of extreme and unpredictable environmental conditions—especially during low-altitude operations. Excellent work by the crew. Some VLAT Stats - There are currently 4 interagency-approved Very Large Airtankers (VLATs: 8,000+ gallons) globally, down from 5 after the 19,200-gallon 747 Global Supertanker went out of service in 2021. - The 10 Tanker DC-10s can carry up to 9,400 gallons in three tanks mounted in series on the belly, each designed similarly to those used on Erickson Skycrane #helicopters. - When dropped from a minimum altitude of 250 feet, the retardant line can be 300 feet wide and up to 1 mile long. - VLATs are ideal for augmenting extended attack operations due to their lead plane requirements and loaded landing limitations. #aviation #aerial #firefighting (Video: X @HotshotWake)

Fighting a massive and rapidly spreading wildfire from the air is a truly mind boggling logistical effort. I used flight data from FlightAware, and wildfire data for NASA and the ArcGIS Living Atlas to animate a single 24 hour period of firefighting activity over the Palisades fire. Over that stretch on January 9-10, more than 35 aircraft flown by numerous state, local, and commercial operators tallied up more than 15,000 flight miles to contain the fire. The data for this animation was processed in ArcGIS Pro before being animated in Blender. #ArcGIS #Blender3D #wildfire #datavis #cartography #map

"These fires are not a forest management issue". This important learning from the LA fires holds true for several destructive fires we witnessed in Europe. These fires spread fast through light fuel and from one structure to the neighboring one. This is why creating and maintaining a defensible space is so important. Check out yours: https://lnkd.in/efRUXKYF

🔥 Turn the Wind Into Your Best Ally 🔥 When wildfires move fast in strong winds, aerial suppression often isn't an option. That’s when pre-positioned, ground-based solutions become critical. By creating a drift-prone mist, we can saturate embers mid-air and treat fuels with moisture downwind, forming protective corridors that expand with wind strength. The stronger the wind, the greater the coverage. Think about Santa Ana winds in California, the Mistral in France, or the Meltemi in Greece—these winds drive extreme wildfire behavior. Strategically placing mitigation systems upwind near high-value assets is key. That’s why we designed the modular and mobile FireFence container: ✅ Scalable – Covers up to 10 km per container ✅ Water-efficient – Uses <15000L (4000 gallons) per kilometer to contain a 10m (30ft) flame front in shrubland - could be further reduced through the addition of fire retardant ✅ Effective – Requires 20-30 minutes of operation, a window that early detection often provides ✅ Affordable - purchasing price and operations at a fraction of the costs of aerial means. Wildfires are inevitable. Losing infrastructure doesn’t have to be. Let’s rethink fire defense. 🔥🌬️💧 HoZe Solutions GmbH will be showcasing the system for wildfire containment and mop-up in Portugal and Spain with the Autoridade Nacional de Protecção Civil and the CABILDO DE GRAN CANARIA. Feel free to reach out to us to learn more, for demonstrations near you or for a quote: info@hoze-solutions.com Ralph Bloemers Christopher Anthony Seth Schalet Zoë Schlanger Anukool Lakhina Bill Clerico George Whitesides Brandon Dunham Jason Brooks Maxwell Brodie Don Moore Genevieve Biggs Hussam Mahmoud Daniel Berlant Molly Hausmann Dan Munsey, MPA, EFO, CFO Rachael Brady David Saah Kevin Sofen Eddie Sell Kelly Martin Nick Schuler, CFO, PIO Andrea Santy Matt Dias Kate Dargan Marquis Ken Pimlott Amy Berry Laura McCarthy Jennee Kuang Frank Frievalt Dave Winnacker FIRE-RES European Space Agency - ESA Future Forest Initiative Team Wildfire Jacinto Marques Oliveira Sucrs Lda #WildfirePrevention #FireDefense #ClimateResilience #FireFence

"The high winds meant that traditional firefighting was, at least in the beginning, all but impossible, David Acuna, a battalion chief for Cal Fire, told me: He saw videos of firefighters pointing their hoses toward flames, and the wind blowing the water in the other direction." - taken from the article in the link below. Knowing wind patterns causing dangerous conditions - Santa Ana winds or Mistral in France, Meltemi in Greece - and holding critical volumes of water allows you to make use of ressource-efficient and scalable systems working with the wind to treat large corridors. HoZe Solutions GmbH will be showcasing the system for wildfire containment and mop-up in a series of roadshow with the Autoridade Nacional de Protecção Civil, the FIRE-RES research program and the CABILDO DE GRAN CANARIA in coming months.

Shameless. Offensive. Harmful. This was a grassland shrubland fire, driven by wind — this is where and when most loss occurs. Protecting homes and commmnities starts at the home outward. We cannot cut our way to a fire free future nor to fire safe communities. Logging trees on national forests 30 to 50 miles away is irrelevant to how the Palisades fire devastated a town located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by chaparral. “Our prayers are with the victims of the dangerous fires today in California. We must aggressively increase the pace and scale of our forest management to prevent these types of catastrophes in the future. Last year we passed the Fix Our Forests Act with overwhelming bipartisan support to help support community resilience to wildfires and prevent these types of tragedies in the future. Unfortunately, that legislation died in the Senate. Additionally, the forestry title of the Farm Bill would have implemented measures to proactively manage forests to lessen wildfire risk. Now is not the time for politics but the time for action, and House Republicans will work to pass these initiatives again in the new Congress.”

🌲🔥 Witness Innovation in Action: Wildfire Defense at Work 🔥🌲 Check out this video showcasing the FireFence system in action, containing a wind-driven fire front running up a hill. This could be an additional toolbox in your community-driven wildfire defense, transforming paths and roads into effective fuel breaks! The drift-prone emission of water droplets means the system treats vegetation over large corridors ahead of the fire before the fire sucks up moist and cool air as the front approaches. The system can be scaled over long distances (kilometers / miles) and is shipped in modules with varying sizes from trailers to containers. This means a single fire crew can now treat more distance all whilst staying out of the danger zone. Wildfires are unpredictable, but preparedness makes all the difference. Take a moment to assess your community's readiness with this simple checklist: ✅ Strategic Roads Identified: Are there accessible roads surrounding your community for evacuation and emergency response? ✅ Fuel Breaks Built: Have you created and maintained fuel breaks to slow fire spread and protect critical areas? ✅ Strategic Water Reserves: Is your community equipped with water reserves (e.g., tanks, ponds, or reservoirs) in key locations for firefighting efforts? Your community's resilience starts with preparation. What steps has your community taken to prepare for wildfires? Share your insights and let’s keep the conversation going! Reach out to us if you'd like to see a demonstration near you! #WildfirePreparedness #CommunityResilience #InnovationForGood #WildfireSafety Future Forest Initiative European Space Agency - ESA Universidade de Coimbra Associação para o Desenvolvimento da Aerodinâmica Industrial (ADAI) Autoridade Nacional de Protecção Civil Hellenic Fire Service Official Πυροσβεστικό Σώμα Ελλάδας SDIS 78 SDIS 59 SDIS38 - Service Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours de l'Isère Service Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours de la Gironde - SDIS 33 Service départemental d'incendie et de secours des Bouches-du-Rhône (SDIS 13) Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (BBK) Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP ABC7 Los Angeles XPRIZE

IN THE NEWS: Los Angeles Times Sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason why a home survives a wildfire when all the others around it burned. Sometimes though, we know why a home survived - home hardening. Malibu residents Jim and Nancy Evans are living proof that modern approaches to architecture and landscaping can make all the difference when facing wildfire threats. Their home survived against the odds, thanks to fire-resilient design choices like steel-reinforced walls and a durable metal roof. "Clearing vegetation and debris from around a home is also key", Berlant said. "These efforts don't have to be expensive", he said, pointing to a list of low-cost retrofits from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. https://lnkd.in/gbWjacE4 To learn what you can do, go to visit: https://lnkd.in/gPB8Zn3Q Read the story to learn what made the difference for their home. https://lnkd.in/giFjqqfy #CAWildfires #LAwildfires #PalisadesFire #EatonFire Joe Tyler Anale Burlew Nick Schuler, CFO, PIO Lisa Lien-Mager Wade Crowfoot Tony Andersen

Last week I shared a very raw and grief written post showing a video of our home burned down by the #PalisadesFire. After taking a few days and processing a bit more, I have made an attempt to more clearly articulate a plea to folks working in the geospatial and tech industries to wake up and realize we are failing the people and causes that need us the most. The gist: "In these most recent Los Angeles fires, winds were so strong there could be no air support for fighting or mapping the Palisades Fire. So for 12+ hours we were left without any realtime fire mapping information. Where was the satellite information then? I have a PhD in Remote Sensing, I have built satellite data processing pipelines, I help manage one of the NASA satellite data centers, I teach courses on climate resilience, adaptation and geoinformatics. I have had the privilege of attending conferences around the world seeing first-hand demos of incredible science - pitched Star Wars-esque technologies, self-tasking satellites and yet the irony is that with all my experience I could not access the information I knew existed to help our community."

Appreciate this. To protect communities - We need to deal with the structures, and the moat and pond of vegetation around them - not the vast lake or ocean of vegetation across the West. In other words, it’s not the fire prone and fire adapted landscape that is the issue in loss of communities. Fire is inevitable. The landscape might benefit from some work for the landscape’s sake, but it is not related to whether homes burn.