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A side-story related to firefighting, from Wikipedia's History of firefighting: "The first ever Roman fire brigade of which we have any substantial history was

A side-story related to firefighting, from Wikipedia's History of firefighting: "The first ever Roman fire brigade of which we have any substantial history was created by Marcus Licinius Crassus. He was born into a wealthy Roman family around the year 115 BC, and acquired an enormous fortune through (in the words of Plutarch) "fire and rapine." One of his most lucrative schemes took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department. Crassus filled this void by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the fire fighters did nothing while their employer bargained over the price of their services with the distressed property owner. If Crassus could not negotiate a satisfactory price, his men simply let the structure burn to the ground, after which he offered to purchase it for a fraction of its value." Also, as this was featured as a Reddit TIL, here are a few interesting comments: https://imgur.com/a/Fhuc5 https://imgur.com/a/Fhuc5

Balgair 9y ago
Maybe this could work as a B2G route, like the guys making the firefighting helicopters selling to CalFire. But yeah, this smells like they are trying to find a way to privatize firefighting, which is not cool (pardon the pun)
- jabretti 9y ago
  It seems to me more like they're just trying to build firefighting drones. It's not clear to me that they have any actual insight into how said drones might help, or how firefighting is done at the moment.
  - twic 9y ago
    Surely it's simply a question of putting fire on the blockchain?
  - giarc 9y ago
    I volunteered for a search and rescue organization for awhile. There was some interest in drones simply to get overhead video of a collapsed building etc. Currently you are limited to walking over the rubble. If you could have a drone fly overhead and identify victims or unsafe areas, it could really help.
    - 33W 9y ago
      Something on the scale of the Raven UAV would make sense for that application: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven
  - sjg007 9y ago
    Those big super tankers operate at like $1m a day.. drones seem like they would be mosquitos in comparison. Maybe useful for spotting fires but I think satellite are the best plus traditional look outs. AI for sat images to spot wildfires is probably already done. It could track storms (lightning etc..). A bigger issue for wildfires is removing fuel sources which nobody does. A wet winter and spring fuels fire season. Improving fire code is more likely to have a bigger impact. This is basically all about money though.
    - dreamcompiler 9y ago
      Airborne drones can't carry enough water to be useful for extinguishment, but land-based drones could, and a swarm of mini-bulldozers to clear a fireline would be even better. Getting them to work reliably in rough terrain with lots of vegetation would be a big challenge though.
- civilian 9y ago
  The problem isn't privatization, it's the payment structure. Crassus should have set up an insurance or subscription based system. I imagine that a firefighting startup would not actually replace the operations of fire departments, they would simply sell products to fire departments. One example of that is Active911: https://www.active911.com/ https://www.active911.com/ They sell a product that allows notifications to be pushed through multiple communication methods, and allows coordination of first response.
  - Balgair 9y ago
    Crassus seems like he did just fine as it was. He was the richest man in Roman history (excepting Augustus) :) Then again, he was instrumental in turning the Republic into Empire, so he's a bit of a mixed bag. Yeah, I think they want a 'greaser' company that will help smooth out governmental workings, FF deployments, and other stuff. Building drones is hardware, and hardware is bad at 'scaling.' Especially, since this kind of hardware is so 'critical' and probably need a lot of testing.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      There's a startup in Germany that only has about 20 employees, yet they produce "professional" VTOL fixed-wing drones for businesses and such, and make churn one out every three minutes. https://www.quantum-systems.com/ https://www.quantum-systems.com/ (Not affiliated, just heard of them in the Omega Tau podcast, which by the way I strongly recommend!)
      - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        With that name, you'd think they'd be into quantum computers or quantum encryption lines, not drones.
deleted 9y ago
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Balgair 9y ago

Maybe this could work as a B2G route, like the guys making the firefighting helicopters selling to CalFire. But yeah, this smells like they are trying to find a way to privatize firefighting, which is not cool (pardon the pun)

jabretti 9y ago
It seems to me more like they're just trying to build firefighting drones. It's not clear to me that they have any actual insight into how said drones might help, or how firefighting is done at the moment.
- twic 9y ago
  Surely it's simply a question of putting fire on the blockchain?
- giarc 9y ago
  I volunteered for a search and rescue organization for awhile. There was some interest in drones simply to get overhead video of a collapsed building etc. Currently you are limited to walking over the rubble. If you could have a drone fly overhead and identify victims or unsafe areas, it could really help.
  - 33W 9y ago
    Something on the scale of the Raven UAV would make sense for that application: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven
- sjg007 9y ago
  Those big super tankers operate at like $1m a day.. drones seem like they would be mosquitos in comparison. Maybe useful for spotting fires but I think satellite are the best plus traditional look outs. AI for sat images to spot wildfires is probably already done. It could track storms (lightning etc..). A bigger issue for wildfires is removing fuel sources which nobody does. A wet winter and spring fuels fire season. Improving fire code is more likely to have a bigger impact. This is basically all about money though.
  - dreamcompiler 9y ago
    Airborne drones can't carry enough water to be useful for extinguishment, but land-based drones could, and a swarm of mini-bulldozers to clear a fireline would be even better. Getting them to work reliably in rough terrain with lots of vegetation would be a big challenge though.
civilian 9y ago
The problem isn't privatization, it's the payment structure. Crassus should have set up an insurance or subscription based system. I imagine that a firefighting startup would not actually replace the operations of fire departments, they would simply sell products to fire departments. One example of that is Active911: https://www.active911.com/ https://www.active911.com/ They sell a product that allows notifications to be pushed through multiple communication methods, and allows coordination of first response.
- Balgair 9y ago
  Crassus seems like he did just fine as it was. He was the richest man in Roman history (excepting Augustus) :) Then again, he was instrumental in turning the Republic into Empire, so he's a bit of a mixed bag. Yeah, I think they want a 'greaser' company that will help smooth out governmental workings, FF deployments, and other stuff. Building drones is hardware, and hardware is bad at 'scaling.' Especially, since this kind of hardware is so 'critical' and probably need a lot of testing.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    There's a startup in Germany that only has about 20 employees, yet they produce "professional" VTOL fixed-wing drones for businesses and such, and make churn one out every three minutes. https://www.quantum-systems.com/ https://www.quantum-systems.com/ (Not affiliated, just heard of them in the Omega Tau podcast, which by the way I strongly recommend!)
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      With that name, you'd think they'd be into quantum computers or quantum encryption lines, not drones.

deleted 9y ago

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