Aqua Mist Fire Shield

ARMS — Aqua Mist Fire Shield

An automated residential misting system that recycles the home's own water, stores it underground, and keeps the roof and perimeter wet through a wildfire — with or without the city main.

Talk about a pilot Read the FAQ
The ARMS water loop: sources feed a collection tank, a treatment train cleans the water, and a storage tank supplies roof and perimeter misting, toilets, and landscape overflow. Rain and roof runoff Perimeter trench Household wastewater City main (backup) Collectiontank Treatment train Bio (aerobic / anaerobic) Ultrafiltration membrane Carbon adsorption Ozone + UV Clean waterstorage Roof misting Perimeter misting Toilets Overflow → landscape Solar array and battery power the pumps, valves and controller.
Development stage. ARMS is not yet for sale. We are seeking a site for the first demonstration installation and partners for patent, regulatory, and pilot work.

Fire codes protect materials. They don't protect the home.

Recent fires exposed the same four failures over and over. Water pressure collapses when a whole street opens its taps, so sprinklers and hydrants go dead. Defensible space is poorly designed and embers reach the house anyway. Fire-resistant roofing and siding are treated as the whole answer instead of one layer. And most homes are built to the code minimum rather than designed for resilience.

Homes built to the newest codes still burn. Older homes are worse. Code alone ignores the systems a house needs to survive the hours a wildfire spends passing through.

Layered protection, designed in

ARMS treats a home in a fire zone the way an engineer treats a building with no sewer: as a closed water system that has to work on its own. The house collects its own water, cleans it, stores it, and uses it — for daily misting, for toilets, for the landscape, and for the day a fire comes through.

The result is a home and garden that are more beautiful, cheaper to run, and far harder to burn.

How the system works

  1. Collect

    A perimeter trench around the house catches rain, roof runoff, and returned mist. Household wastewater is routed to the same underground collection tank.

  2. Treat

    A compact treatment train — biological stages, tubular ultrafiltration, carbon adsorption, and ozone/UV — cleans the water to a quality suitable for spraying on the home and recycling to toilets. The modules are about the size of two or three refrigerators.

  3. Store

    Clean water is held in buried tanks, typically three 1,000-gallon tanks. Storage is what keeps the system independent of city pressure during a fire.

  4. Mist

    Pumps deliver water to nozzles along the roof ridge, eaves, and perimeter. Sequential valves and a programmable controller set zone, pressure, and timing. Misting runs lightly every day and at full coverage on demand, by manual trigger, or from an early-detection signal.

  5. Return

    Overflow irrigates the landscape and recharges the soil. Solar panels charge a battery so pumps and controls keep running through a power cut.

Design targets

  • Nominal 1,000 gallons per day of treated water
  • 80–90% reduction in household water draw from the main
  • Modular; retrofits to existing homes or designs into new construction, and can be removed and moved
  • Daily light misting keeps the roof and solar panels clean and proves the pumps and nozzles work
  • Runs on solar and battery; independent of grid and city pressure during an event

Wildfires melt aluminum wheels and leave the lawn green. Wet surfaces don't ignite.The whole system exists to make the house behave like the lawn.

Roadmap

This is a phased program. The next milestone is a demonstration system on a real home, evaluated by a fire department.

Phase 1 — now

Design and demonstration

Patent and trademark filings, engineering optimization, a demonstration installation with an interested fire district, and a business plan for investors.

Phase 2

First installations

A small number of systems on homes in high-risk areas, installer training, and presentations to regulators, fire marshals, and builders.

Phase 3

Key markets

Sales in California's most exposed communities alongside a maintenance program and work with insurers on premium recognition.

Phase 4

Scale and license

Expansion through developers across the United States and licensing in fire-prone regions abroad — Australia, Greece, France, and beyond.

Questions about ARMS

I already spray my house from city water when fires are nearby. Why consider ARMS?

Spraying the roof is exactly the right instinct. The problem is doing it reliably. When many homes draw at once, city pressure drops and the hose goes limp. A hand-held hose never covers the surface evenly, and standing on a roof in an ember storm is dangerous. Fire-only sprinkler systems that sit unused for years often turn out to be plugged or seized when they are finally needed.

ARMS mists the whole home and landscape uniformly, every day, from underground storage that is always full — so it is proven working long before a fire, and it does not depend on the main.

Can ARMS reduce my water bill and my fire insurance?

Recycling is designed to cut household draw from the main by 80–90%. Insurance is a goal, not a promise: once systems are installed and evaluated, we intend to work with insurers and government on premium recognition and tax treatment similar to what rooftop solar receives. Daily misting also keeps solar panels clear of dust, which improves their output.

What does it cost?

Cost depends on the home, the site, and whether the system is retrofitted or designed into new construction. A full recycling system is a significant investment comparable to other major home infrastructure; a simpler collection-and-storage configuration costs considerably less. Early installations carry engineering costs that volume production will remove. We quote each project individually — tell us about your home and we will give you a realistic range.

Is the sprayed water safe?

Water leaving the treatment train is purified through biological treatment, ultrafiltration, carbon adsorption, and ozone/UV to a quality intended for spraying on the home and recycling to toilets. Drinking water is piped separately and is never part of the recycle loop.

Does it work on an existing home?

Yes. The system is modular and designed to retrofit: buried tanks outside, treatment modules in a basement or utility space, and nozzle lines along the roof and perimeter. It can also be designed into new construction, where the landscape and roof can be laid out for it from the start.

Why hasn't this been done before?

The pieces have — Sam has spent forty years building wastewater recycling for buildings with no sewer access. What is new is putting that engineering into a home in a fire zone and pointing the clean water at the roof. After the Laguna fires, the local fire chief told the press no preventive option existed. This is one.

I'm not in an obvious fire area. Is there any reason to look at this?

Fires are arriving in places that never expected them. Even without the fire risk, a system that saves most of your water and keeps the landscape green through a drought stands on its own.

Partners we're looking for

  • A fire district or fire marshal willing to evaluate a demonstration installation
  • A homeowner, developer, or landowner in a wildfire zone to host it
  • A utility or power company interested in a joint venture
  • Investors for Phase 1 and Phase 2

Talk to Sam directly

Sam answers his own phone and reviews every inquiry. Tell us who you are and what you have in mind.

Contact us about ARMS