A startup that's figured out how to extinguish fires using inaudible sound waves just closed a $3.5 million seed round. Sonic Fire Tech has built an acoustic fire suppression system that operates below human hearing range and could revolutionize wildfire defense for homes across fire-prone regions like California.
The idea of fighting fires with sound isn't exactly new - remember those college kids who went viral a decade ago using a booming subwoofer to snuff out flames? Even DARPA was experimenting with the concept back in 2012. But what sets Sonic Fire Tech apart is they've actually made it work at scale, and more importantly, made it silent.
The breakthrough came when CEO and CTO Geoff Bruder, a former NASA engineer specializing in heat and acoustics, teamed up with board chairman Michael Thomas through a LinkedIn connection. "I got a subwoofer and some parts from Home Depot and AutoZone and said, 'Hey, let's see if we can do any better than other people had,'" Bruder told TechCrunch. "We knocked a fire out from seven feet in my driveway."
The real innovation happened when they ditched audible frequencies entirely. "You've basically got to throw a speaker design in the trash and start from scratch," Bruder explained. The problem with previous attempts was simple - any system powerful enough to suppress fires using audible sound would damage human hearing.
Their solution uses infrasound, acoustic energy below 20 Hz that humans can't hear. Instead of speakers, the system employs a massive reciprocating piston - think of a car engine piston, but two feet long. An electric motor drives a crankshaft that pulses this giant piston to generate the fire-suppressing sound waves.
The timing couldn't be better. Wildfires cost the U.S. up to $424 billion annually, and the problem has gotten so bad in California that insurance companies are refusing to renew policies in fire-prone areas. Traditional fire suppression systems rely on water, which can be scarce during the droughts that often coincide with wildfire season.
Sonic Fire Tech's current prototype can extinguish flames from 25 feet away, but Bruder says a larger system could work from 330 feet. For home protection, the company routes infrasound through rigid ducts installed on roof ridges and under eaves. Ridge-mounted units fire downward to catch debris fires in gutters, while eaves-mounted units aim at ground level to suppress flames near walls. The whole system activates automatically when sensors detect fire.
