The Argentinian created a wildfire protection system based on artificial intelligence, because climate change is causing an increase in the number and virulence of wildfires, and all statistics highlight that the situation will continue to worsen.
Currently, fires consume an area that is twice what was burned 20 years ago, and extreme fires could see a 30% increase by 2050 and up to 50% by the end of the century, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Each hectare of native forest lost represents economic losses valued between 17,000 and 30,000 US dollars and takes more than 20 years to regenerate, notes the World Resources Institute.
Additionally, according to Reuters, a study confirms that the fires in Los Angeles in recent years caused losses exceeding 50 billion dollars.
Wildfire Protection System
In response to this reality, Franco Rodríguez Viau founded Satellites on Fire, a wildfire protection system that integrates satellite images, climate data, elevation and land cover data processed with proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms.
The benefit of this system is that it detects fires on average 35 minutes earlier than NASA FIRMS and allows simulating the spread to guide extinguishing strategies, according to its creator.
Franco Rodríguez Viau created the company in 2020, after witnessing at 16 years old how family acquaintances lost their homes in a fire in Argentina.
“That moment was a turning point. I understood that technology should serve to anticipate these tragedies and reduce their consequences”. From there, he led a team of 17 experts, including former collaborators from NASA, the European Space Agency, and machine learning consultants for the University of Oxford (United Kingdom).
This initiative is a conservation tool for the environment in the face of wildfire protection and is a 100% software business model with a free scheme with paid options (freemium) that allows validating field fires and consolidating a database of fire records that is the largest of real fires in Latin America.
In the last quarter, the platform helped respond to 400 fires, positively impacting the mortality rate of firefighters in some countries and contributing to the safety of rural communities.
Among its clients are Quilmes, Genneia, Forestal Argentina, and Pomera Maderas, in addition to a national contract with 70 fire stations in Argentina.
The company has raised so far 850,000 dollars in investment and funding from institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), the United Nations, and Cornell University (USA).
The Argentinian Franco Rodríguez Viau studied at a technical programming school, completed a virtual MBA at ThePowerMBA (Spain) and also studied engineering in Artificial Intelligence at the University of San Andrés (Argentina), studies he paused to focus on the development of the company.
Rodríguez Viau’s goal is to turn Satellites on Fire into the leading global platform for early detection and protection of wildfires and deforestation, integrating the use of autonomous drones capable of verifying and combating fires within the first five minutes after they start.
“With the wildfire protection system, we want to protect more hectares and increase the resilience of vulnerable communities through precise and real-time information”, says Rodríguez Viau, for Noticias Ambientales.
Thanks to his career and this work, Franco Rodríguez Viau is one of the 35 Innovators Under 35 Latin America 2025, recognized by MIT Technology Review in Spanish.
