Scanning the Horizon: Reflections on the Red Sky Summit and the Future of Wildfire Technology
Fire-suppressing soundwaves emitted from your roof’s gutters. Autonomous fire suppression drones small enough to carry in the back of a pickup truck. A remote-controlled robot that munches on vegetation to reduce the risk of fire. Fire retardant made from food-grade materials.
These were just a few of the technologies on display at the Fire Tech Showcase at the November 2025 Red Sky Summit. During the day-long Summit, more than 600 people gathered at Fort Mason in San Francisco to discuss how we can work together to develop and scale technology that supports wildfire resilience. There has been an exponential increase in attendance at the Summit since the first meeting began as a dinner just a few years ago, reflecting growing investment and interest in wildfire technology.
Indeed, with the recent devastation of the Palisades and Altadena fires fresh in everyone’s minds, the sense of urgency at this year’s conference was palpable. Though wildfire response and resilience have been a priority for this Administration and Congress, the federal government is falling behind on its prescribed fire goals. And states are reckoning with the impacts of wildfire on insurance and energy affordability as they work to support wildfire victims in the long process of recovery.
Technology will play a key role in solving these challenges: especially, as we wrote in our response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s recent Request for Information (RFI) on a forthcoming wildfire technology roadmap, when investments in wildfire suppression are appropriately balanced with investments in wildfire resilience. This year’s Red Sky Summit was an opportunity to further consider what the role of fire tech can and should be – and how public policy can support its development, scaling, and application. Five of my own reflections are below.
We must innovate to lower the cost of investing in resilience in both the built and natural environments.
Many conversations about wildfire focus on improving how we manage our forests and grasslands. These are crucial discussions that have led to important investments in prescribed fire and other risk reduction methods. But fire is a natural feature of many U.S. landscapes, and so we’ll never reduce fire risk to zero. That means that in parallel we must invest in wildfire resilience – so that homes, utilities, and other built infrastructure can coexist as safely as possible. Advances in technology can help bring down the costs of these investments over time.
As our FAS team noted in a publication on building grid resilience in the face of wildfire and extreme heat, private capital and nonprofits can play a broader role in building a more robust innovation ecosystem that lowers costs; examples include prize challenges such as Conservation X Labs’s Fire Grand Challenge and venture capital firm investments such as Convective Capital (a host and funder of the Red Sky Summit). Federal agencies can also prioritize funding innovation through testbeds, grants, and technical assistance for communities and utilities. Utility companies can invest proactively in risk reduction capabilities such as advanced mapping and analysis tools that support vegetation management or advanced early detection (e.g., wildfire detection cameras).
Where there’s fire, there’s smoke. Which is why it’s unfortunate there’s not more smoke tech.
Wildfire smoke is estimated to cause tens of thousands of deaths every year. Unfortunately, technology focused on reducing the quantity and impact of smoke was largely absent at this year’s Red Sky Summit. But not for lack of possibility. Our recent publication provides suggestions for how innovators can be part of the solution to wildfire smoke, such as by developing personal protective equipment for wildland firefighters. Future Summits (and other efforts) should explore how the private sector can develop, test, and scale products that help individuals, nursing homes, schools, and workplaces protect themselves from smoke. At a government level, we should consider how to deploy market-shaping mechanisms that will incentivize more innovation in the space.
Removing administrative barriers is crucial to risk reduction.
Tackling the wildfire crisis is a difficult task no matter how you slice it. But administrative barriers are making it even harder. Technology has a role to play in reducing administrative barriers, such as by streamlining permitting for prescribed fire. Earlier this year, FAS published examples of and recommendations for using technology to improve the efficiency and utility of environmental reviews. While perhaps not as obviously fire-related as a suppression drone, innovations in the software and decision-support tools we use for permitting at various levels of government can play a key role in helping to address the wildfire crisis.
New policy must enable faster technology introduction and implementation.
Our response to the aforementioned RFI discusses additional opportunities for innovation to reduce administrative barriers to wildfire resilience. For example, Congress could provide fire agencies with Other Transaction Authority (OTA) to facilitate more streamlined procurement. Additionally, as the Environmental Policy Innovation Center has recommended, the federal government can develop “well-known entry points” to create a clearer path for technology providers interested in bringing their innovations to the public sector.
Innovators should leverage the vast body of social science to improve technology.
Social science is an underutilized source of knowledge that innovators should integrate more thoughtfully into their work. While many innovators are aware of the importance of engaging end users in technology development, innovators can and should also draw from the robust body of social science about how people and organizations make decisions before, during, and after wildfires. For instance, successful risk reduction in the built environment entails helping people see that their homes can be both beautiful and resilient (rather than pitting home values and pleasant neighborhoods against resilience).
Looking to the Horizon
Wildfire technology has made impressive advances in the last five to ten years, thanks in part to artificial intelligence applications and major investments across sectors. But the policy, funding, and capacity uncertainties of this moment raise important questions about how best to capitalize on the momentum of these advances. FAS is committed to continue working to ensure that well-designed policies enable healthy competition in the marketplace, abundant innovation, and a future where everyone benefits from fewer red skies.
This year’s Red Sky Summit was an opportunity to further consider what the role of fire tech can and should be – and how public policy can support its development, scaling, and application.
Promising examples of progress are emerging from the Boston metropolitan area that show the power of partnership between researchers, government officials, practitioners, and community-based organizations.
FAS supports the bipartisan Regional Leadership in Wildland Fire Research Act under review in the House, just as we supported the earlier Senate version. Rep. David Min (D-CA) and Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) are leading the bill.
The current wildfire management system is inadequate in the face of increasingly severe and damaging wildfires. Change is urgently needed