High-tech home defense system fights fire with sound waves

PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A new high-tech system puts out fires using sound waves. It may seem like magic but it's not - it's science.

This revolutionary technology from Sonic Fire Tech could help protect homes in high fire-danger zones.

So how does it work? The sound waves break up the chemical reaction that's fueling that fire. Sonic Fire Tech believe this is the future of home hardening.

"In the fires, we recognize we can't depend on the utilities, we can't depend on water or power being available. so the system needs to run efficiently, run on back-up battery, and run continuously for not just a period of minutes, but days, as we saw those fires burning homes down days after the event. The home should protect itself," said Remington Hotchkis, the chief commercialization officer at Sonic Fire Tech.

Eyewitness News covered a recent Sonic Fire Tech demonstration in Pacific Palisades, where two products were on display for fire victims rebuilding, architects and local firefighters.

In one demonstration, a tree was lit on fire. A few seconds later, a firefighter wearing a backpack that sends out sound waves you can't hear was seen putting the flames out.

Besides the backpack, Sonic Fire Tech's main product looks like a gutter system around the roof of a home and was designed by former NASA engineers. The technology causes embers to bounce off a home rather than set it on fire.

But what if you're dealing with hurricane force winds like we saw in the Palisades and Eaton fires?

"Our system will autonomously be able to pick up the wind, calculate the ratio of suppression velocity, and then put that energy against it," said Hotchkis.

The Sonic Home Defense System creates a 30-foot non-ignition zone around a home, where fire can't exist because the sound waves cause the oxygen to vibrate - the oxygen which the fire needs to survive.