A swirling fire tornado consumed Melanie Bitner’s family cottage in 2023. No matter where life took her, she says, that place on Gun Lake, B.C., had always been home. After watching it burn on a webcam, “I feel as though I’ve lost a piece of myself,” she says.
Across Canada, more than eight million hectares—an area bigger than New Brunswick—burned in 2025. It’s part of worrying trend. Research shows wildfire season is becoming longer and more destructive; 2025 was the second worst season on record, surpassed only by 2023. For cottagers, wildfires are becoming less of an “if” and more of a “when.”
Since losing their cottage, Bitner and aerospace engineer Alex Deslauriers, her partner in both life and business, have been working on a solution that might have saved it: drones. Really big drones. And they’re not the only ones turning to tech. Other firms are developing everything from super-powered sprinklers to satellite-linked foam dispensers that stop fire in its tracks.
Bitner’s company, FireSwarm Solutions, is still in the pilot and demonstration phase. Its giant quadcopter drones can scoop up to 400 kg of water from lakes or reservoirs in a single run, dumping it on fires with precision. Software allows multiple drones to work together under the control of a single operator. Onboard sensors and AI let them fly at night and in thick smoke, working when other aircraft and ground crews typically can’t. Bitner sees a future in which communities or municipalities ensure these resources are positioned in high-risk areas.
Another B.C. company, FireBozz, in Nanaimo, has developed a wildfire suppression system cottagers can use themselves. Rod Szasz, the company’s director, calls it a “sprinkler on steroids.”
All sprinklers, he explains, are effective because they load the air with moisture, raising the relative humidity, killing incoming embers that can ignite a building, and cooling the area. What sets FireBozz apart is portability, quick setup, and relative affordability. Its foldable sprinklers can be operational in a matter of minutes. Unlike other systems, there’s no need to stake them into the ground or worry about proprietary hose connectors. FireBozz systems have saved homes, larger buildings, and even a lumber mill, and they’re already used by fire departments across Canada. A cottage system—that can pull water from a lake or a 5,000 to 10,000 gallon tank using a high-pressure pump running on diesel or propane—would cost roughly $11,000 to $14,000, Szasz estimates. That includes two mini sprinklers, each capable of shooting water 34 metres. With wildfires increasing, Szasz thinks all at-risk homes should have some external sprinklers in the future.
How wildfire smoke impacts weather patterns
The main issue for cottagers is that the FireBozz system isn’t autonomous; someone has to be there to turn it on and off, which would be untenable if there’s an evacuation order. But even in that case, simply having a sprinkler system means firefighters are more likely to protect your cottage since they triage properties (in part) based on how defensible they are.
Other sprinkler companies—Frontline Wildfire Defense and Defense Delivered—offer plumbed-in external sprinklers mounted to eaves and roofs. They can usually be operated remotely through an app, or even autonomously, detecting fires using satellite data, thermal cameras, and temperature sensors.
But these firms aren’t operating in Canada yet, and built-in autonomous systems can get pricey, often requiring annual subscriptions on top of installation. Duston Dolamore, the co-founder of Colorado-based Defense Delivered, estimates installation for an 800-sq.-ft. cottage would cost $15,000 USD, excluding water tank and pump.
Defense Delivered’s sprinkler systems use water or foam. (Foam allows for more fire suppression with less water.) But one company is working on a system that eschews foam and water and could run on battery power for days.
Sonic Fire Tech, an American startup, positions sound emitters and ducts in and around a structure to broadcast inaudible, low-frequency waves that act like a shield against embers. Sound waves interrupt combustion by disrupting how oxygen and fuel mix, starving the fire. But the company is still working to make the system effective in high winds and against big flames right at the cottage.
These solutions aren’t easy or perfect yet, but as another hot and humid summer hits, it’s good to know new wildfire-fighting technology is taking off, in some cases quite literally.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2026 issue of Cottage Life.
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