As the 2021 fire season looms large, state and federal officials must act now to approve California-based firefighting technologies and ensure firefighters have the resources needed to prevent a repeat devastating wildfire season

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Retired National Guard Dual-Status Commander Dana Hessheimer and Caylym Technologies Managing Director Rick Goddard will come together for a virtual media availability on Thursday, March 4 at 10:30 a.m. to call for state and federal officials to approve additional, local firefighting technologies to help prepare our state’s firefighters ahead of the 2021 fire season.

Unutilized resources remain available in California’s backyard, including Fresno company Caylym Technologies and their aerial firefighting technology, the Guardian System. Caylym will provide a demonstration of the Guardian during the event to share how it works and the major impact new technologies like this can have to prevent wildfire devastation in California. This technology is currently being used to effectively fight wildfires in Australia, Peru, the EU and Greece, but has not yet been used in California nor in the U.S.

With some of the largest fires in our state’s history burning last year, leaving our firefighters without enough resources to protect Californians, action needs to be taken now to activate local resources, like the Guardian System, so that 2021 is not a repeat, record-breaking year of devastating wildfires.

WHO:              Dana Hessheimer, Vulcan Fire & Former Dual-Status Commander for the                                      National Guard at the Camp Fire Rick Goddard, Managing Director, Caylym

WHEN:            Thursday, Mar. 4 at 10:30 A.M.

WHERE:         Zoom details upon RSVP.

Additional Background:

California faced its most devastating wildfire season to date in 2020, with over 4 million acres burned and seven of the ten largest fires in the state’s history occurring. Over the course of the fire season, CalFire admitted their resources weren’t sufficient to protect our communities and Governor Newsom said even with 12,000 firefighters on the lines fighting 560 active blazes, he had to request additional assistance from Canada and Australia.

California needs to support firefighters with further rapid response and surge resources like the Guardian System now to save more California lives, property and our environment. The Guardian System can be implemented quickly at minimal cost using standard, readily available cargo planes that can drop 40% larger water loads than our firefighters are currently capable of every 10 minutes. Because cargo planes can air drop with this capability from higher altitudes than current firefighting aircraft, the Guardian System can also be used day or night.