Our Story

FireWhat Inc. is an emergency service company, aimed at delivering life saving innovation to a technology deprived industry. The company is based in the northern California town of Dunsmuir.   The desire to change the way training is delivered pushed the company into formation in the spring of 2010.  Since then, the crew at FireWhat has worked to develop a training and education, and wildfire notification website.  

The team at FireWhat is comprised of Firefighters, and industry experts.  As the website launched, it became apparent that a Mobile Application was needed to spread the information to the masses.  So FireWhat jumped to action and pulled together there resources.  The outcome was an application that brought together all the critical information a firefighter might need in the event of a wildfire.

When the first app came out, the team focused solely on marketing to the Fire Service.  At an industry event, our developer brought up the idea of focusing an app to the larger crowd.  The people! People are effected by wild fires every year.  In fact, more then 300 million acres of land burn, and an estimated 4 billion dollars are spent to combat these fires. The sad part, people parish, and thousands of homes are lost in these conflagrations each year.

Now that the apps have got out, FireWhat is moving forward with the main strategy of an entrepreneurial research and development plan poised to revolutionize the emergency response system.  The staff at FireWhat has a deep understanding of today’s firefighting needs; thus through years of direct participation in antiquated emergency incident response protocols, the development of the Incident Automation Project (IAP) has come to fruition.  

The project automates existing practices, making the response process faster and smoother. The IAP Project will save time, streamline communication, provide a massive reduction in taxpayer expense, and improve emergency response personnel safety, delivering a streamlined response to disasters.  

The Team at FireWhat has made our first goal to help spread critical information, and now we need your help to get firefighters and responders to and from the calls safely, and provide life saving information!   

The Impact

Each year, approximately 300 million acres of private and government land is distroyed by fire.  Ten's of thousands' of residents are displaced, and Billions of tax payer dollars are spent to manage, fight, and recover from these incidents. The long term impact on a wildfire is great.  Every possession is gone, every picture lost, and every memory an ash.

The plan to build FireWhat Wildfire Pro app (Firefighter Version, already launched) came about from the frustration of real life firefighters, our owners.  Each year, we respond to hundreds of incidents, and head into places that most people are running away from.  The fire environment is best described as purgatory.  

The information provided prior to heading into an incident is slim to none.  Could you imagine driving into a raging inferno, and not knowing whats on the other side of the wall of fire?  Well this helps paint the picture.  The ability to relay information to firefighters seems like it should be readily available.  But it's not.  And we don't feel right about that.  

Theres an old adage in the fire service, "200 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress!" This has always sat heavy with the founders.  So the mission grew to make sure every firefighter had accurate timely information delivered to the palm of there hand, by way of an app. The apps provide weather and fire information, critical guides, satellite imagery of fires, and the ability to send information from the field to the commanders and decision makers.

As the app launched, we realized, why not build a space for the people affected by fire, the 83 million people who live in the areas directly affected by fire each year. Provide safety information, evacuation routes, and places of safe harbor.  Why not build the app so we provide life safety information to the "Them's" of the world!

So the impact...  The impact is great.  The ability to provide folks with info in the palm of there hand for incidents that change in seconds flat.  There's a reason there's the saying "It grew like wildfire!"  We hope to develop this tool, and deliver it to the masses, so it in turn spreads like wildfire, and keeps people safe in the time of need.

What We Need & What You Get

So, what we need, and where is it going???

Well we need to market to the masses.  We are currently working on our prototypes, and meeting with industry experts.  The main portion of the money needed will go directly to marketing.  We need to get the word out that something like this exists. 

The amount needed is approximately $2,000,000 to fully build and deploy the project.  We are working towards raising $20,000 initially.  This will help us get into magazines, radio, papers, conferences, app stores, and ultimately it will save lives.

What's in it for you?  Well, the thought of knowing you helped build something that saved a life...  There's the first plus..

Second plus, we'll hook you up with some cool SWAG, Jackets, Sweatshirts, T-Shirts, Nalgene water bottles, stickers, apps...  

Third, it's just a great cause.  To know you helped a firefighter get to the call and provided them with info that helped reduce the loss of life and property, that in it self alone is pretty uplifting...

Other Ways You Can Help

Other things we could use, support.  Support in the way of Mentorship, Tech Advisors, Marketers, Evangelizers, product testers, reviewers, and folks to help us spread the word. 

We need folks to down load the apps, and spread the word about them.  We also have a huge need for folks to help us maintain the databases during the fire season.  As you can imagine, the number of fires that break, and the importances of providing accurate information is huge.  To have a few folks on board to help us with this would be great too.  You could enjoy an awesome summer in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and home to the "Best Water on Earth", Dunsmuir, CA.