Firemaps: New Startup Offers Tech-Driven Solutions to Defend California Homes from Wildfires

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Firemaps, the startup using tech-driven solutions to defend California homes from wildfire, today announced general availability of their platform across California.  Firemaps uses satellite and drone imagery to create ultra highly accurate 3D maps to analyze properties, create a home hardening and defensible space plan, and dispatch the right workers via their marketplace of qualified general contractors.  As fire season bears down on California, Firemaps is bringing speed and efficiency to a process that might otherwise take months to complete. Within three weeks, Firemaps can greatly reduce the risk of a home being destroyed by wildfire, quickly bringing properties into compliance with often extensive insurance and municipal codes.  The company has also raised $5.5 million in seed investment led by Andreessen Horowitz and including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and investor Lee Fixel.

According to a June 2021 report from the UC Berkeley Center for Community Innovation and nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank Next 10, more than 1 in 12 California homes is located in an area that has a high risk of burning in a wildfire event.  At the same time, California is facing an insurance crisis.  Since 2015, 950,000 California households have been dropped by their property-casualty insurance companies because of escalating fire risk.

Firemaps not only helps homeowners parse insurance requirements, the platform can, with homeowner's permission, share comprehensive reports.  This way insurance companies can discount rates for work that has been done.  Reinsurers can quickly see what proportion of homes in a given area have been secured against wildfire. State and municipal governments can apply grant dollars apportioned for these treatments back to the homeowner via the platform.

"As we speak, there are record-breaking wildfires throughout the western half of the USA, as well as in France, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Russia, and in Canada." said Jahan Khanna, CEO of Firemaps. "Wildfire season is now all year.  It will continue to threaten the lives of firefighters and destroy homes and communities.  There are millions of homes in high-risk areas that need complex work done at an unprecedented scale, as quickly as possible. We created the Firemaps platform as a way to deal with the effects of climate change for the people who have to live with it."

Firemaps does not charge homeowners a premium.  Due to the efficiency of the platform, contractors pay a fee to participate. Homeowners in high-risk areas can get mapping done for free. Firemaps can also help homeowners procure available grant funding; the state of California has allocated $536 million in fire defense grants. Qualifying homeowners can use this state grant money to help pay for their Firemaps wildfire defense.

How the Firemaps process works:

• Homeowners submit their address at Firemaps.com.
• Firemaps uses satellite imagery and machine learning to create a preliminary risk assessment.
• For high-risk homes, Firemaps will construct a 3D map of their home and property using a handheld drone. The map is able to render details of the home's landscape, topography, vent construction, deck construction, roof condition, and porch or deck vulnerability and can measure the particular features of the property to an accuracy of within 1centimeter.
• The map is used to generate a detailed risk assessment and wildfire defense plan, taking into consideration local fire department guidance and homeowner insurance requirements.
• Qualified contractors, arborists, and other tradespeople are able to bid on the work remotely, using the Firemaps data. Firemaps project manages the process.
• The Firemaps platform can routinely dispatch contractors to keep the work maintained as vegetation regrows, and will allow the property owner to voluntarily share the data with insurance agencies, their local fire departments, and other stakeholders in exchange for insurance discounts and local government incentives or tax credits where applicable.

Study after study show that this work is not just necessary, but it's critical in the fight against untamed wildfire:

• An analysis* of over 115,000 homes across over 1200 historical fire events in North America shows that these defensible space landscaping techniques can increase the chances of a home surviving a wildfire by up to 90%.
• Hardening the home and replacing roofing, siding, and vents have the potential to add another 50% chance of survivability.
• California State Forestry research indicates communities where over 70% of the homes in the area have applied both techniques across all homes have done roughly the equivalent of putting an extra fire break in the surrounding geography to secure the neighborhood.

Both CALFire and IBHS.org advocate for homeowners to apply these techniques, as do newly introduced CA state regulations and building codes like AB38.

"Firemaps is building a critical marketplace to empower homeowners to take meaningful action to address urgent climate risks," said Andrew Chen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. "The Firemaps team is well-equipped to scale their offering into new markets and other climate change problems, such as flooding and storm reinforcements and I'm optimistic about the impact their technology will have."

Firemaps was founded in 2020 by a team of executives from Uber, Postmates, and large-scale construction companies. 

Learn more at www.firemaps.com

About Firemaps
Firemaps is a climate-tech startup that brings the power of Drone 3d photogrammetry and satellite imagery to help California homeowners defend their homes from wildfires. The Firemaps process, including risk analysis and a personalized fire defense plan and mitigation work done by Firemaps' network of qualified, vetted contractors, can help homeowners reduce their risk of their property being destroyed by wildfire by up to 90%. Founded in 2021, Firemaps has raised $5.5 million in seed money from Andreessen Horowitz, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and investor Lee Fixel. Learn more at www.firemaps.com.

Media Contact for Firemaps:
Rebecca Silliman, Whipsmart PR
[email protected] 
(510) 254-7615
*Analysis of Wildfire Fuel Management And Risk Mitigation conducted by Business & Home Safety and Zesty.ai (April 2021)

SOURCE Firemaps

Related Links

http://www.firemaps.com/