A Zamboni for wildfire prevention? ‘Mobile burn chamber’ could change the game

MARTINEZ — Inspired by a colleague’s idea — an ultimately unsuccessful concept of using sound or puffs of air to control fire – Dr. Waleed S. Haddad considered another tactic: using wind and water to control the temperature and intensity of a blaze.

Over nights in his kitchen, the physicist came to design and invent what he calls a “mobile burn chamber,” which starts a fire, controls the flames and extinguishes them, all in one pass. Now, wildland and fire experts hope the device may play...