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Chris Anthony spent his career with CAL FIRE, finishing as Chief Deputy Director. Now he’s focused on a critical question: how do we connect innovation with the needs of firefighters and communities?

Sean spent time with Chris during a recent conference that SidePorch helped run focused on a resilient rebuild following the LA Fires.

In this conversation, Chris shares:

✨ Why the biggest gaps are not technical but in procurement, legislation, and communication
✨ Military models that show how to move ideas from concept to scale
✨ Innovations giving him hope:

• 🚁 Rain and autonomous Blackhawk helicopters
• 🌱 BurnBot scaling prescribed fire for resilient landscapes
• 🏡 Fireside helping residents harden homes and track risk reduction
• 🧪 Research like Burn Pro 3D and Agni-Nar shaping fire behavior models

Chris’s vision: technology that not only fights fires faster, but helps communities live with fire, through prevention, planning, and resilience.

👉 Listen now and join the conversation: How can innovation reshape our relationship with wildfire?

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments or forward this to someone working at the intersection of technology, policy, and community resilience.

Shared Ground is produced by Sean Knierim and Allan Marks. Thanks to Cory Grabow, Kara Poltor, Corey Walles (from The Recording Studio) for your support in launching this effort.

For more stories of resilience & rebuilding, kindness & generosity: visit shared-ground.com and subscribe to Sean's substack. We invite you to share your own stories of resilience at the Shared Ground website - whether in response to the January fires in LA or other situations.

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