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When Thad McCracken was forced to evacuate his home during 2024’s Microwave Tower Fire in Oregon, he quickly grabbed his sled dogs. All 25 of them.
As he was driving away from his home, his engineering brain kicked in. He thought, “I ought to be able to come up with something that could defend my house or other people's houses.”
So, after the evacuation notices were lifted, he returned to his unscathed home and got to work. The flames had stopped 400 yards from his house. Since then, McCracken has been developing and testing solar-powered, wireless wildfire sensors.
The sensors can be set up around a perimeter or a structure, and if they sense a fire, they turn on a generator and a pump. That sets off sprinklers – right now on McCracken’s roof. He’s been testing 20 sensors around his home.
The sensors measure temperature and air quality. McCracken said he filed a patent on an algorithm, which should notice the difference between a hot day or smoke blowing in from afar – and an immediate threat.
So far, he’s tested the sensors out at burn piles on his forested land – 40 acres that drape over a ridge. He’s also partnered with local nonprofits to test the sensor out at prescribed burns in the spring.
“ I think that’s about as close as you can get to a real ‘wildfire test,’ that you can plan,” McCracken said.
This spring, they set up the sensors in front of the prescribed burn to see how they’d fare. The sensors detected the wildfire ahead of time and were able to get an alarm out before they burned up, he said.
“ The sensors exceeded my expectations on all those fronts,” he said.
McCracken is building the sensors as inexpensively as possible. That's partly because he expects they could burn up in the case of an extremely hot fire.
The sensor components are designed to withstand temperatures up to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, but the prescribed fire tests show they've kept working around 250 degrees.
The sensors don't need to withstand that heat, though, McCracken said. They'll predict that the fire is coming before temperatures rise 20 degrees above the outside temperature.
Other types of sensors use artificial intelligence to detect wildfires from afar, or help better understand smoke exposure. But, as far as McCracken knows, no one is using sensors and algorithms to help protect property.
There have been challenges throughout the development and testing process, he said.
For one, in the Columbia River Gorge, a lot of people depend on cached water systems, like wells. That limited water might not be able to help with fire suppression when a fire is miles away.
That’s one reason he decided his sensors needed to protect a particular boundary or structure. That would require less water.
In addition, there aren’t any ready-made sensors for this. So, McCracken combined available sensor technology with the algorithm he developed.
“Think of every sensor as a computer that's constantly taking data and analyzing it and deciding if there's a threat or not,” he said.
He’s also trying to figure out how to scale-up the technology if it continues to work well.
This summer, McCracken said he will continue to test the sensors on his property. The tests will make sure the sensors can tell the difference between a hot day, smoke from far away and a wildfire that’s close.
He also wants to make sure they’re able to work all summer.
“I kind of have a dream of helping people's houses not burn down,” he said. “It would be nice to play a part in that with some of my skills.”
He said the sensors could also protect things during a prescribed burn that firefighters didn’t want to burn, like specific trees with birds’ nests.
Next fall, he plans to test the sensors at prescribed burns with different conditions than in the spring.
He also wants to make sure the sensors work well if they’re placed under a tree and no matter which direction they face. South-facing devices typically get the most sun.
Columbia Land Trust, a conservation nonprofit, plans to use the sensors to learn more about important habitat within Oregon white oak trees. When a large limb falls off one of these trees, it can eventually turn into a cavity. Animals often use those cavities as nests, like Washington’s endangered western grey squirrel, birds and amphibians.
It provides the habitat benefits of a standing snag, but in a live tree, said Lindsay Cornelius, with Columbia Land Trust.
“ This is what makes Oregon white oak one of the most rich trees in our ecosystems,” she said. “And so what we're trying to do is put sensors inside these cavities just to understand what's happening inside the cavities during a fire, whether it's a wildfire or prescribed fire.”
The plan is to conduct those tests during prescribed burns this fall, she said. They’ll measure the air quality inside the cavities to see if they make for good places for wildlife to take refuge during a wildfire.
“ It might give us some interesting information about the hazards and how long (animals) living inside of a cavity might be exposed to smoke, and if that's dangerous or not dangerous,” Cornelius said.
McCracken said he’s looking forward to seeing what the sensors can find out. But, the main goal of the sensors is for people to not feel so on edge every fire season.
“ I feel like where I'm at now, my property is better protected than it would be if I was there just doing what I can do with some tools and a garden hose,” McCracken said.
Read the audio transcript here.
