Mitigating Wildfire Risks: Strategies and Innovations

This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with Bill Clerico, founder of Convective Capital, an early stage venture fund focused on technology-driven solutions for wildfire mitigation and climate resilience. The wildfires in Los Angeles have caused unprecedented property damage and immense hardship for countless individuals and families. This episode is devoted to diving into understanding what happened and what we can do in the future. Bill shares his insights into the increasing severity of wildfires, the role of policy, and how infrastructure issues, like outdated building codes and underfunded utilities, are contributing to the crisis. They discuss the latest innovations in fire-fighting technology, from advanced detection to drones, and how these tools can help mitigate future damage.

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Show Notes: 

0:00 Introduction

1:02 Why are wildfires getting worse?

5:37 Policies and regulatory decisions

10:47 Housing: building codes and permitting

13:19 Key factors in response

16:20 Improving water supply and city infrastructure 

19:10 Preventing wildfires

21:26 Underinvestment in California’s utilities

26:53  Innovative fire fighting technology

29:35 Accelerating Los Angeles’ recovery

34:29 Actions homeowners, insurance companies, and governments can take