In Palisades Highlands, a California, neighborhood that burned to the ground, the Golling family’s home is untouched, thanks to a firefighting system that used the home’s swimming pool to save the structure.

Gene Golling and his son, Patrick, bought the Brushfire Battle System last summer after seeing an online advertisement. At just about $3,700, it seemed like a pretty good deal.

“I envisioned this burning,” Gene Golling said from his home after the Palisades fire swept through his neighborhood. His backyard now overlooks a hillside of burnt chaparral. “I said to myself, this is a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

The Gollings say that two factors saved their home. One was clearing the dead brush and furniture from around their property. The other was the Brushfire Battle System, which drained their 20,000-gallon pool, running for 10 hours straight as its irrigation-style sprinklers soaked the hillside while the family was safely evacuated.

The Brushfire Battle System was created by David Whitman, a Southern California entrepreneur who is gaining attention for developing this unique way to help homeowners protect their properties from fire.

Working out of his patio, Whitman, a South Pasadena high school environmental science teacher, is manufacturing these unconventional firefighting systems, which are powered by a gas generator and a handmade pump.

The water source is the home swimming pool.

Whitman founded his company, Brushfire Battle Systems, in 2019 to address the growing need for wildfire preparedness.

He began researching the topic in November 2018, after the Paradise, California, fire burned through 150,000 acres and forced 52,000 people to evacuate. During his research, he kept running across burned homes with full swimming pools.

“I’m like, ‘What the hell? Why aren’t people using their pools to fight fire and protect themselves?” Whitman said. “So I started researching high-pressure water pumps and agricultural irrigation systems.”

Realizing that existing fire suppression systems were expensive and often out of reach for many homeowners, Whitman set out to design a cost-effective, portable solution that could be used by anyone with a pool. The Brushfire Battle System was born.

Brushfire currently sells eight different pumps, ranging from $1,895 to $6,150. The most popular, Engine 51 ($3,495), is a portable, high-pressured pump that runs off a powerful Honda GX200, 6.5-horsepower engine. Installed near the pool, it comes with a 13-foot suction line with strainer, an installed wheel kit, quick cam lock suction line connections, gated wye valve, two 50-foot fire hoses with nozzles, 10/30 synthetic oil, and local service and support.

The fire hoses attach to irrigationstyle fire sprinklers, and the water pumps are “capable of delivering over 90 gallons a minute out 200 feet in diameter,” according to the Bushfire website.

Whitman said he’s been advertising his Brushfire Battle Systems for years, but until now, has struggled to get any traction.

“I spent thousands advertising,” Whitman said. “I didn’t get one sale. Zero. I’m like, ‘Why am I wasting money?'” That literally changed overnight — on January 7 — when Golling, one of Whitman’s Pacific Palisades customers, was able to successfully protect his property. The news coverage of Golling’s intact home turned out to be the best advertisement Whitman could have hoped for.

Today, as the Los Angeles wildfires continue to burn, Whitman says he’s having a hard time keeping up with demand.

Prior to the L.A. fires, Whitman sold about three units a month. Today, if it weren’t for inventory and production constraints, he says he would be selling 10 a day. As it is, he has been able to move about four per day since the Golling’s story aired.

“I haven’t had a day off since the fires started,” Whitman said. Whitman warns that the pumps are not made for untrained homeowners to fight an active fire, but the pumps can be utilized by firefighters.

And while Whitman isn’t happy about the reason his pumps have become suddenly popular, he admits that he feels vindicated after years of warning people that they could do better.

“California needs to get its act together,” Whitman said. “These fires are unmanageable. Neighborhoods need to fight for themselves.”