Someone whose name I believe is Steve Shoap, judging from the email address he leaves, keeps leaving comments attached to various articles here on Wildfire Today attempting to promote his invention. We have not approved any of the comments for publication because our policy is to not bother our readers with spam and unsolicited advertisements.

But this invention of his is supposed to be a “new way to fight wildfires”. It involves truck-mounted reels of large diameter hose (LDH) that has high voltage electric power wires embedded into the walls of the LDH.  An electric generator energizes the wires which power water pumps at intervals along the hose. (And we all know it’s a good idea to have water and high voltage electricity in close proximity.)

He estimates the cost for one mile of the system would be $210,000 including the generator.

Disregarding the water/electricity combination for a moment, there may be some special situations or types of fires where a system like this would be useful, but generally, getting water to a wildfire so that it can be utilized by firefighters is not the biggest factor that prevents wildfires from being controlled.

What do you think about this new invention?