An Israeli wildfire startup can detect 1m × 1m fires through a network of AI-trained acoustic sensors and is now scaling pilot deployments from Israeli forests run by KKL-JNF and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority into the US market, particularly fire-stricken California. That is according to Firewave co-founder and CEO Dr Jenia Yurkovsky, who yesterday spoke about the latest generation of wildfire detection systems that no longer wait for human spotters or visible smoke columns, but continuously scan the environment for ignition signals.
Founded in Tel Aviv in 2022, Firewave deploys IoT acoustic sensors trained to recognise the unique sound signatures of burning trees at the spark stage, with AI models filtering wildfire signals from background environmental noise.
Cameras remain the dominant tool for early wildfire detection, but are most effective in open, relatively flat terrain because they rely on line of sight, with detection slowing in dense forests, mountainous regions, or areas of limited visibility. “Sound waves spread in all directions, which enables earlier and more reliable detection,” Yurkovsky said, contrasting acoustic systems with camera and gas-sensor approaches that depend on visibility or wind direction.
Yurkovsky said acoustic sensors sit within a broader integrated stack that includes AI-powered visual cameras scanning day and night, thermal sensors for night and poor-visibility coverage, satellites delivering near real-time hotspot data, drones for perimeter verification and ground sensors measuring temperature, humidity, smoke particles and wind behaviour.
In Israel, the urgency is acute because the country faces prolonged heat, dry vegetation, strong winds and difficult terrain across regions where forests, roads, farms, infrastructure and communities sit close together, conditions that allow a small ignition point to escalate into a major fire within minutes.
Firewave’s US trajectory is being driven by a strategic partnership with Boulder Creek-based Ember Flash Aerospace, which has advanced to the semi-finals of the $11 million XPRIZE Wildfire Competition, with Firewave joining as an acoustic-sensing partner. The combined system pairs Firewave’s real-time acoustic detection with Ember Flash’s autonomous Raptor suppression drones, which dispatch fire-retardant strikes within seconds of a verified ignition signal.
For Israel and other wildfire-prone regions, that approach is becoming central to forest protection — a 20-minute detection window, Yurkovsky said, is being compressed towards two minutes through layered camera, satellite, drone and acoustic networks now pivoting from KKL-JNF’s Israeli pilot sites into the fire-stricken Californian market.
