California startup tests sound-wave system to stop wildfires without water

ALTADENA, Calif. (FOX26) — From Altadena to the Pacific Palisades, Shaver Lake to Paradise, a series of devastating wildfires in recent years have forced communities and experts to rethink how fires are prevented and how they’re stopped once they start.

A California-based company says the answer may not involve water at all.

At Sonic Fire Tech, engineers are testing a system that uses sound waves instead of traditional suppression methods to put out flames.

It’s a concept the company says was developed with input from former NASA engineers.

In demonstrations, small fires fueled by burning brush are shown spreading toward nearby structures, only to be extinguished before reaching them.

The system doesn’t spray water or chemicals.

Instead, it emits low-frequency sound waves designed to disrupt the fire’s ability to sustain itself.

“You have to see it to believe it,” said Remington Hotchkis, Chief Commercialization Officer at Sonic Fire Tech, describing what he calls a physics-based approach to fire suppression.

The company says its technology targets one of the three elements needed for fire: oxygen.

By using sound waves, the system allegedly vibrates oxygen molecules in a way that interrupts the chemical reaction that allows flames to grow.

“Our focus is fire. It’s the most destructive element that we’ve seen in California,” Hotchkis said. “Our former NASA engineers are rocket scientists, and they say it seems like magic, but it’s just physics.”

The system is designed to work in stages.

Sensors detect heat or flame activity, triggering alerts to homeowners.

A generator then activates outside the home, producing sound waves that are distributed through a ducting system.

The company says the effect can reach up to 30 feet from a structure.

Hotchkis, who grew up in Altadena, said the idea became personal after losing his own home in a wildfire and witnessing widespread destruction during evacuations.

“In that moment, I was realizing there needed to be a different way we approach this,” he said.

The technology has drawn interest from first responders testing portable backpack versions of the system, as well as utility officials exploring whether it could help in the critical window between fire detection and emergency response.

It also comes as wildfire experts continue warning that California’s fire seasons are intensifying, with homes themselves increasingly acting as fuel once flames reach neighborhoods.

“The research really shows that once that fire got into the community, it just moved house to house,” said one state fire official. “Homes then become the fuel for the fire.”

The system is also being explored for potential use inside homes, including kitchen fire scenarios, where traditional water-based suppression can sometimes make certain fires worse.

Hotchkis said the goal is not to replace firefighters, but to add tools that can help slow or stop fires before they spread out of control.

“I don’t think it’s fair to rely on first responders to do that work alone without the tools that the future requires,” he said.

The company estimates installation costs at roughly one to two percent of a home’s value, though widespread deployment is still in early stages of testing and adoption.

State officials and insurers say innovation will play a key role in reducing wildfire risk as communities rebuild.

“Technology and innovation have an absolutely critical part to play in protecting people from wildfires,” one insurance official said.

Hotchkis said many of the engineers behind the system spent decades working on aerospace and space-related problems before applying their expertise to fire suppression.

“They’ve been spending 15 to 20 years of their careers focused on outer-worldly problems,” he said. “And now we get to bring those solutions to Earth.”