A California startup says it can protect a house from fire without a drop of water. Sonic Fire Tech's system uses infrasound, sound waves below 20 hertz, too low for people or pets to hear, to stop flames before they spread.
The company says an outside engineering evaluation shows the system can serve as an alternative to residential sprinklers, which California requires in new single-family homes. Fire safety engineers want to see the data. The company has not released the full report or its test results.
The idea is not new. In 2015 two George Mason University engineering students put out small fires with a homemade bass generator, and military researchers had worked on the same physics before them. Sound waves shake the oxygen at the surface of the fuel and break the reaction that keeps a flame alive.
What sound does not do is remove heat. Water cools; sound does not. Shut the sound off while the fuel is still hot, and the fire can come back. Michael Gollner, who studies fire dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley, points to a 2018 paper finding that acoustics alone cannot control a flame past its earliest stage.
That is why the system is built around speed. Infrared sensors watch for heat and embers, and according to the company the system detects a threat in milliseconds and acts within seconds. The selling point is what it leaves behind: Sprinklers put out fires with water, and water does its own damage.
Whether a home can skip the sprinklers is not the company's call. According to the National Fire Protection Association, only the local authority having jurisdiction can approve a substitute, and only after reviewing technical documentation.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.