A high school student from New Jersey named Arul Mazer moved with his parents to San Francisco this year and realized there was a huge downside to his new home. The frequent fires due to heat and drought, which affect many residents each year, losing their homes, businesses, farms, etc.
The teenager wanted to at least do something about the problem and created a device called FACE, which forms a protective perimeter around the property, preventing low to medium fires.
When the sensor of the device heated to a certain temperature, a glycerine element inside activates. This releases an ecological fire retardant which is sprayed over a distance of 1.5 to 2 meters using a sprinkler.
Arul realized his project with the help of crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. He raised the necessary funds in a single day. When the FACE invention goes into production, it will retail for around $120.
Currently, the only existing commercial alternative to FACE is an automatic sprinkler system, which costs several thousand dollars to install. The schoolboy hopes that if his device is used by as many people as possible, residential fires will become rare.
Unfortunately, it does not protect against major forest fires. For now, emergency services will have to deal with it the old-fashioned way.
