By Queenie Wong
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Lockheed Martin, PG&E Corp., Salesforce and Wells Fargo are teaming up to help firefighters and emergency responders prevent, detect and fight wildfires more quickly.
On Monday, the four companies said they’re forming a new venture called Emberpoint to advance technology while making wildfire prevention more affordable.
“The ultimate vision is, you know, eliminating megafires in the United States, and maybe beyond that,” said Jim Taiclet, Lockheed Martin’s chief executive, president and chairman, in an interview.
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The Emberpoint team and its technologies will be created in the coming months and demonstrations are expected sometime this year. Wells Fargo is helping to fund the investment and partners have already committed more than $100 million to the new venture, Taiclet said.
Lockheed Martin already makes aircraft and satellites to fight wildfires, but the company has also worked on integrating data from space, ground and air to help predict where a fire might start so firefighters and helicopters can better position themselves. A lightning strike, downed power lines, improperly extinguished campfires and other events can spark wildfires. The venture’s first service will focus on firefighting intelligence.
PG&E has wildfire mitigation efforts, such as installing power lines underground in high-risk areas, and has weather stations equipped with AI-powered cameras to help detect wildfires. The company will bring its expertise to this new venture but plans to seek regulatory approval to share information with its partners as part of this new venture.
“We can actually share and return to our customers the investments they’ve made in wildfire technology, and return those investments back to customers while making our own system safer and making the state safer,” PG&E Corp. CEO Patti Poppe said.
San Francisco software company Salesforce, which is behind messaging app Slack and a platform that helps companies deploy AI agents, will help organizations coordinate so they can respond to wildfires faster. The company will also help bring data from different streams into a “unified, real-time response engine.”
AI agents can help firefighters better combat a blaze by providing information such as the blaze’s perimeter and the most dangerous areas, Taiclet said.
The partnership comes as wildfires across the globe become larger and more destructive, damaging homes, businesses and other buildings while also disrupting power. In California, where warmer temperatures, drier air and high winds fuel flames, wildfires have caused billions of dollars in damage and claimed lives. Last year, the Eaton and Palisades fires killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures, with the estimated loss totaling more than $250 billion.
The path of destruction left by wildfires has prompted major tech companies such as Nvidia and Google, along with startups and universities, to experiment with artificial intelligence to improve firefighting and detection. Drones, sensors, satellite imagery, autonomous aircraft and cameras are among tools used to manage and fight wildfires.
Lockheed Martin has teamed up with tech companies before to help battle wildfires. The defense and aerospace contractor, headquartered in Maryland, also has offices and employees throughout California, including Silicon Valley. It has roughly 10,000 employees in California.
In 2021, the company partnered with Nvidia along with state and federal forest services to create a digital version of a fire that enables firefighters and incident commanders to better understand how it spreads and find the best ways to put it out.
Last year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said it was working with Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, on a five-year initiative that would enhance autonomous aerial firefighting technologies. The effort also includes exploring the development of an autonomous Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk helicopter, an aircraft used to drop gallons of water onto flames. Sikorsky has worked with California software company Rain to test out autonomous wildfire suppression technology as well.
And Lockheed Martin has built satellites that help U.S. forecasters get images of wildfires, hurricanes and severe weather conditions.
“If we can get prediction better, detection quicker and response more robust, I think we’ve had a real chance at making a big difference here for safety of both the citizens and the firefighters,” Taiclet said.
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