Light Craft Limited is a small corporation, started in Boise Idaho on July 12, 2018.
We are interested in developing bright solutions to problems. We are currently concerned with the problem of increasingly destructive fires occurring at the Wildland Urban Interface. This is where wildlands meet man made structures.
We believe that the destruction in Paradise California and in the hills above Malibu is clearly a call to change the way we build — where fires naturally occur. So it’s time for a new paradigm.
It is well known, that fire must live without full attenuation in order to maintain the health of the forest. Fire is needed for the forest to renew food, water, and homes for animals and birds. Snag forest for example is one of the richest, most biodiverse habitats — and it is created by very hot fires. Fires remove pests and maintain the diversity of the forests flora. This ensures rich food sources for birds, animals, bees and other important creatures in the web.
The Paradise fires and the fires above Malibu occurred where structures were built amidst the fuel for the fire. Native Americans built homes, of Tee Pee construction, on the open prairie where fire fuel is low. To live in greater harmony with wildlands, better planning of new construction is needed. We believe it is also necessary to change the way we manage the wildland urban interface.
Our idea is to create larger buffer zones at the wildland urban interface, thus allowing wildfires to burn naturally without destroying homes and other man made structures. We believe it is also important to build with fire resistant building materials such as brick or Autoclave Aerated Concrete, AAC.
With our current understanding, we think the solution must include the following ideas. 1) Plan new firewize construction with a significant, low fuel zone at the Wildland Urban Interface. By significant, we mean wide enough to prevent a fire from jumping across the zone. This would include thinning of the fuels within the wildland near the zone. 2) To existing developments, add these wider buffer zones at the Interface. 3) Develop strategies to economically maintain these zones. These wide buffer zones can act as staging areas for emergency responders and include water, walls or other strategies of defence in the event of a fire.
Our bright idea is to design and build machines to work continually, and autonomously, to maintain low fuel zones at and near the Wildland Urban Interface. Our machines, robots will also work to clear fire roads and fire lines ahead of the need for them in the forest near the urban interface.
If you are interested in this, please read about Fire Ecology. We are also interested in Conservation Biology, Forest Management, and any knowledge which will help us design better machines, robots. We will share some details about our designs when it is possible.
Sincerely, Ray Writer for Light Craft Ltd.