A pair of Colorado innovators have designed an autonomous sprinkler system to hose down a home if it detects an approaching wildfire.

With both men having experienced the threat of wildfires first hand, each said they were driven to try and do something about it.

Owners of a firm called Defense Delivered, their system uses thermal imaging cameras to detect when flames or sparks might be entering the immediate zone of the house. If the camera sensor is triggered, the sprinklers automatically hose down the house to ideally keep it from burning, and will eventually deploy firefighting foam as a last resort if the threat persists.

Founder and CEO Duston Dolamore told CBS News Colorado that the idea was spawned in the wake of the Ptarmigan Fire in 2021, which burned more than 100 acres near Silverthorne in Summit County, where Dolamore lived.

“When we experienced that fire, the feeling of helplessness, that really nothing could be done, it drove us to make a working solution,” Dolamore said.

The system will spray 35 gallons a minute to coat the house, an amount that was specifically calculated to prevent an overdraw on water resources in drier parts of Colorado.

In fact, it’s built for Colorado in all respects, and has a preprogramed drain and flush function in preparation for winter; owners don’t have to remember or worry about freezing pipes.

According to Defense Delivered’s data, more and more homes are being built every year across America in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface—the place where residential zones brush up against National Forest land. This is not only putting more homes at risk of fire, but raising the cost of home insurance for whole communities as a result.

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Dolamore said a secondary aim of their automated sprinkler defense system was to hopefully give residents a chance at obtaining a lower insurance rate.

Red, White and Blue Fire Protection District Division Chief Mathew Benedict told CBS News that having seen the system in action, he considers it a “win” for homeowners who opt to install one.

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“There are companies trying different ideas out there. This company has gone at it following the good science, the wildfire science, the wildfire physics… they’re looking at homes and looking at their vulnerability and putting water where the home is most vulnerable. In my opinion, that’s a win.”

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