Innovating on the Frontlines: The FireTech Podcast

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode we speak with Kai Hoffman-Krull from the San Juan Islands Conservation District, and Jayden Alp from Envisioning Labs. Together, they're working to pilot FireLance––a multifaceted sensor technology that provides real-time, continuous monitoring of prescribed fires to detect and prevent lingering hotspots and re-ignitions. Kai is a certified NRCS Natural Resource Planner and has founded and managed the field restoration program, the Islands Conservation Corps, since 2019. Kai studied forestry and literature at Yale University, where he also received a certificate in Business Plan Development from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Western Washington University College of the Environment, and has coordinated research projects in forestry with the University of Washington, University of Montana, and Oregon State University since 2014. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in Biogeochemistry and Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, and has written extensively for publications such as Growing for Market, Civil Eats, New Society Publishing, The Sound Consumer, Rodale Institute, and Stone Pier Press. Kai is also a Washington State Certified Burner and a US Forest Service C-Level Sawyer, and holds on foundational interest in integrating academic, cultural, and field based knowledge.  Jayden Alp is the Communications and Engagement Manager at Envisioning Labs, a Vancouver-based climate innovation and R&D firm. She is the Project Lead for Firelance, the company's wildfire technology initiative and a finalist in Conservation X Labs' Fire Grand Challenge. With a background in sustainability and community engagement, Jayden is based in Vernon, BC. Get in touch at info@envisioninglabs.com.

The FireTech Podcast' Season 2 (2025) examines the emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. We uncover what responsible innovation for wildfire resilience entails, particularly as it relates to co-developing useful and usable innovations that can amplify capacities on the ground. In this first episode, Wonder Labs' cofounder Shefali J Lakhina speaks with Susan Hartman from the Town of Paradise in California and Lance Adler from The Witching Hour in Tennessee, USA. Susan and Lance came together as one of the Conservation X Labs' Fire Grand Challenge teams last year. They're piloting Witching Hour's robotic system that installs insulation over live power lines, to reduce the risk of utility caused wildfires. Susan Hartman is Community Development Director for the Town of Paradise. She has been with the Town of Paradise for just over 31 years, having worked in Finance, Wastewater, Building, Engineering, Solid Waste, & Planning. She's worked on multiple disasters including the 2008 Butte Lightening Complex (37 fires over 59k acres), 2016 Saddle Fire, the 2017 Oroville Dam Spillway event & the Honey Fire, and the 2018 Camp Fire. Lance Adler is Founder & CEO of Witching Hour, a startup working to prevent wildfires caused by power companies. A former PG&E engineer, Lance understands the need for insulating live power lines using advanced materials and robotics. The Witching Hour's solution is working to reduce faults and ignitions that can lead to catastrophic fires on landscapes and in communities.

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with David Green, Principal Consultant at Green Resilience Insights, LLC. In this role David provides consulting for science and technology innovation, transition, and integration enabling foresight planning and strategy, risk management across weather, water, and climate-impacted sectors. David previously served as Program Manager for NOAA and NASA. As the NASA Applied Sciences Wildland Fires Program Manager, David and his team used space-based instruments and models to support decisions and actions, promote innovation and build capacity in the use of Earth Science. Prior to joining NOAA, David was a Research Fellow at the National Institution of Science and Technology and worked in the private sector as well. David received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto.

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with retired Fire Chief Frank Frievalt, now Director of Cal Poly's Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute. Frank previously served as fire chief for the Mammoth Lakes Fire Protection District, division chief of operations for the Sparks Fire Department, among other leadership roles. In his current role at the WUI Fire Institute, Frank is focused on developing a better understanding and implementation of the "mitigations that matter" so communities can be designed in ways that are resilient and well-adapted to fire and smoke impacts.

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Neil Chapman, Wildland Fire Captain for the Flagstaff Fire Department and Summit Fire & Medical District, Arizona. We talk about Neil's wide ranging career in fire adapted land management over the years; how agencies are working together to catalyze systems innovations to modernize workforce capacities; and why it is important to democratize access to beneficial fire for both landscape stewardship and community resilience objectives. Neil is President of the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership Advisory Board, 2024 Chair of the Northern Arizona Chapter of the Society of American Foresters, and President of the Friends of Camp Colton Board of Directors. Learn more about Neil here: https://gffp.org/essential_grid/neil-chapman-flagstaff-fire-department-and-summit-fire-medical-district-forest-health-supervisor/

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Josh Wilkins, a seasoned fire captain and wildfire technology consultant with over 27 years of dedicated service at the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Southern California. Josh has managed and responded to numerous wildfires across the western United States, demonstrating a profound commitment to public safety and emergency response. We learn about Josh's journey with FireTech over the years, the kinds of technology he found most useful on the frontlines, and his perspective on how local agencies can catalyze the co-development and early adoption of useful and usable FireTech. Connect with Josh Wilkins here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwilkins1/

In this first episode, I set the stage for this mini podcast series by summarizing key trends and findings from the State of FireTech 2023 Survey and Annual Update. Download the 2023 report and summary here: https://www.wonder-labs.org/state-of-firetech.html and be sure to take the 2024 FireTech Survey before August 30, 2024 here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/firetech2024 In the next episode, you'll learn from my first guest Josh Wilkins, who recently retired as Fire Captain with the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Southern California! Josh is a second generation firefighter who has led responses to hundreds of wildfires over the past 27 years and will tell us about his journey with FireTech on the frontlines.

This trailer introduces the aims of the Innovating on the Frontlines FireTech Podcast: a mini series that showcases how intrapreneurs within federal, state, and local agencies catalyze innovations. Join us on this learning journey!