Firefighting Drones Are Being Tested Across the US Before Wildfires Get Out of Hand

Key points

• On July 15, five self-flying drones jointly sprayed between 500 and 1,000 gallons of fire-suppressant foam during a California field test run by CAL FIRE, the state's main firefighting agency.
• The drones are made by California company Seneca, which plans to sell them commercially starting in 2026.
• An $11 million XPRIZE competition is funding separate efforts to push drone firefighting technology further.
• Drones tested so far are too small and short-range to replace large airtankers that drop thousands of gallons on remote, raging fires.

A group of self-flying drones practiced putting out fires in California and Alaska this summer, and the results hint at a genuinely useful new tool for one of America's costliest problems.

CAL FIRE ran the headline test on July 15. Five autonomous drones, aircraft that fly and make decisions without a pilot at the controls, worked as a team to spray between 500 and 1,000 gallons of fire-suppressant foam combined. The demonstration was organised with nonprofit FireWERX and California-based drone maker Seneca, first reported by TV station KPMH.

These drones aren't here to replace the big guns. Large airtankers carry far more payload and fly much farther than any small drone can manage. Nothing in these trials changes that.

But that isn't the point.

Speed at the start is. A wildfire is easiest to kill in its first minutes, before wind and dry brush turn a small flame into a front that swallows neighbourhoods. Drones can launch quickly and begin spraying before a crewed aircraft gets off the ground. Stop it early, you never need the airtanker.

Climate change has stretched fire season across most of the year in large parts of the United States, meaning agencies now face the problem nearly 12 months a year. That's the pressure these tests are designed to answer. AI2Day covered a parallel shift in autonomous aircraft on 20 July in our first story on CAL FIRE's drone programme.

Seneca plans to make its drones commercially available in 2026. A separate push is coming from the XPRIZE foundation, which has put up $11 million in prize money to accelerate competing teams.

What does this mean for people living in fire-prone areas?

Faster first response could become a realistic option within a few years. A drone stationed near a fire-risk zone that can detect and suppress a new ignition before it grows could keep fewer homes in the path of an evacuation order. Seneca's drones aren't on the market yet, so residents can't act on this today. Local fire agencies are already paying attention, though, and that's where pressure for faster adoption will come from.

The technology works at small scale and is moving toward commercial reality. The harder question: how many drones, stationed where, funded by whom.