(Photo above: (L-R) FireWhat, Inc. Sam Lanier CEO & Rusty Merritt COO | courtesy of FireWhat, Inc.)
In the 19th and early 20th century fire and water were used to create the steam engines that pushed technology to the limits of that time period. On June 15 fire and water met again with the merging of two Geographic Information System (GIS) companies, FireWhat, Inc. and Geo-Spatial Solutions.
Both companies bring to the table years of expertise in their respective fields. Geo-Spatial Solutions focuses on the maintenance activities for agriculture and water monitoring and FireWhat’s focus is on emergency disaster response mapping. This union of fire and water will once again push the limits of technology, in this case GIS, in a bold new direction.
Both companies are Silver Partners with Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) and met in the emerging business startup program offered by Esri. CEO of FireWhat, Sam Lanier, “we’ve always attributed our success in part to Esri, but the merger of two companies from the emerging partner program really underscores the value of Esri’s programs. We look forward to combining our resources and developing new and innovative solutions for our customers.” Rusty Merritt, FireWhat COO, adds, “the emerging partner program gave FireWhat and Geo-Spatial Solutions the opportunity to explore and develop new ways of doing business, but we never thought a merger with another company would come as a result of the program. The merger of the two companies combines our people and resources to put us in a much better positioned for the demand we’re seeing across our two industries”.
FireWhat, Inc. will now be in three locations with offices in Redding and Dunsmuir, California and Bend, Oregon. These three locations are strategic for rapid emergency response, while at the same time being well position to serve the water infrastructure and irrigation mapping needs of the Western United States.
FireWhat, Inc. was founded in Dunsmuir, California in 2010, to bring innovation to the technology-deprived industry of wildfire response. FireWhat provides custom GIS technology tools to map and track assets in and out of the field. FireWhat owns and operates wildlandfire.com, a trusted source of wildfire information nationally and is a Silver-level partner in the Esri Startup Program.
FireWhat actively supports the pursuit of higher education for the youth of Siskiyou County and currently administers volunteer firefighter recruitment and training programs for Siskiyou and Shasta counties.
The merge brings on Geo-Spatial Solutions which provides professional GIS consulting services and application development across the agricultural water vertical. Geo-Spatial Solutions has been in the GIS business for over 16 years and understands what it takes to create satisfied customers and how to bring successful projects and products to market.
FireWhat, Inc. Dunsmuir at 530-235-4419
FireWhat. Inc. Bend, Oregon, 888-791-7212
www.firewhat.com
