HomeBase

HomeBase, developed by Ember Corps at the University of Southern California by Mitchell Kirby and Alexander Bartolomei, is a network of permanently prepositioned drone hubs in wildfire-prone areas. Each hub houses drones equipped with fire retardant, enabling response to hard-to-reach ignitions within 2-5 minutes, compared to longer 15-20 minute responses in remote terrain. Our mission: to improve firefighter safety, reduce wildfire spread, and lower economic and infrastructure losses, saving taxpayers billions of dollars. HomeBase will partner with local government, municipalities, and utilities to build and deploy scalable, community-based systems that strengthen resilience and protect high-risk regions from catastrophic wildfire events.

HomeBase is crucial to address growing wildfire risk. Our drone hubs keep American communities safe, protect first responders, and save taxpayers billions of dollars per year by deploying fire-retardant carrying drones to immediately respond to wildfires. The 2025 Los Angeles fires were devastating, burning nearly 60,000 acres and 15,000+ structures. The worst of the disaster occurred when resources ran dry, as the Palisades lost water and first responders were stretched between 7 different fires. We met with FEMA, Calfire, LA Fire Department, insurance companies, first responders, homeowners, and city officials. They assisted us to understand the problem and to ideate where we could make a meaningful impact. Since starting over the past 3 months, we have knocked on nearly 500 doors in these burned neighborhoods, meeting those who experienced this tragedy firsthand. One of these residences housed Stephanie, who shared her experiences of both 2025 and 1961, when her family's home burned in the Bel Air fire. She experienced the same tragedy nearly 60 years later, because we have not advanced the way we prevent wildfires. Nearly 75% of wildfires start outside of rapid response zones, making longer travel times for firefighters, nearly 3x the acceptable urban standard in hard-to-reach instances like the Palisades. When the fire was first reported at 10:30 a.m. on January 7th it was 10 acres. 20 minutes later it was ~200 acres. These first minutes are crucial, and exactly where innovation is necessary. That is why we are building HomeBase: permanent drone hubs with ~100lbs of fire retardant per a payload, prepositioned in high-risk areas to immediately respond to wildfires before they grow and spread. Currently when a fire is spotted, 911 is called and a dispatch center sends the nearest fire station to the scene. With HomeBase, they will simultaneously remotely take control of a drone from the nearest HomeBase Hub, piloting it to the scene to contain the fire while the fire trucks are on the way. This contains the fire, preventing a large-scale outbreak even in hard to reach zones. This is not only a California issue, as there is a $1 trillion dollar market estimated by McKinsey for 2030 for climate resiliency. The National Institute of Building Sciences estimates that for every dollar spent in wildfire prevention $6 is saved in return and for greater infrastructure investments like Homebase a 13x ROI can be currently estimated. Ember Corps is the operating entity run by project cofounders, Mitchell Kirby, who is descended from a long lineage of firefighters, and Alexander Bartolomei, who has survived multiple major wildfires in Northern CA. Together, we look to keep wildfire resilience at the forefront of innovation. Funding is needed to begin fabrication and testing, with the goal to have a functional prototype ready to test by September, coordinating with the FAA to get BVLOS deployment. We are also in communication with a number of interested stakeholders and potential customers like Southern California Edison, LA County Fire, LA City, and LADWP.