"In many regions, emergency response is centralized and externally controlled. Trident inverts this by training communities to plan, deploy, and maintain their own climate-response assets. It’s a model of localized empowerment—aligned with Foresight’s vision for inclusive, distributed climate solutions." - Rick Baksza, COO, Trident Pumps
Trident Pumps Delivers Localized Solutions for Wildfire, Flood, and Drought Response
May is Wildfire Prevention Month, and across Canada innovators are stepping up to tackle one of our greatest threats: the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires. From advanced detection systems to decentralized water access and sustainable forest management, the cleantech sector is playing a crucial role in protecting our lives, infrastructure, and natural environment.
An increase in fires due to our changing climate is resulting in the need for more critical water access. The amount of water required to put out the average house fire can range depending on the size and intensity of a fire, but The Fire Underwriters Survey specifies that municipal water systems should be capable of delivering at least 1,000 liters per minute for two hours for dwellings. Understandably, wildfires require significantly more water to manage, including helicopter bucketing, air tankers, ground operations using pumps and tanks, and sprinkler systems. But what happens when a fire breaks out in remote communities without easy access to municipal water infrastructure?
In 2020, Foresight wrote an article about Alberta company and Launch and Deliver alumnus Trident Pumps to explore how their technology was disrupting the fire services sector. We recently caught up with Rick Baksza, COO of Trident Pumps, to learn more about how their company has scaled and impacted communities across Western Canada.
Efficiency in Response & Deployment
Trident Pumps is working to ensure that remote communities, including Indigenous communities, have access to quick and efficient water resources to protect the places that are important to them when fire breaks out. Many communities lack municipal infrastructure to support traditional fire fighting services. While tanker trucks and high-volume pumps are designed to carry more water to put out flames that erupt in remote areas, their water capacity is limited. This equipment is also large, requires ample storage space, relies on expensive diesel fuel, and often needs cranes or flatbeds for transport—delaying deployment when every minute counts.
Trident Pumps' innovative, lightweight, gas-powered, and easily deployable water pump system provides the same water flow as systems ten times heavier. Weighing under 600 lbs compared to over 6000 lbs for traditional diesel-powered pump units, their patented Transportable Pump System (TPS) can use any natural water source—river, lake, or dugout—eliminating dependence on pre-existing water infrastructure. The company notes that this “empowers first responders in remote and under-resourced regions” allowing them to tackle fires quickly and efficiently.
But, Trident Pumps doesn’t just fight fires—their systems are versatile and can address a diverse range of challenges in different sectors:
- Forestry: proactive perimeter defense, asset protection, and reforestation site mitigation
- Mining, and Oil and Gas: dust suppression, wildfire buffer zones, and high-volume water movement with minimal footprint
- Municipal Public Works: spring thaw diversion, stormwater relief, erosion control, and rapid flood mitigation, spring grass fires, booster pump for larger fires
- Parks and Conservation: ecologically sensitive areas where low-impact, high-capacity water solutions are essential
The power of Trident Pumps’ optimized water delivery was evident during the 2016 fire that tore through Wood Buffalo, Alberta:
This past May, our province battled the worst fire in our history when the Wood Buffalo fire displaced almost 90,000 Albertans from their homes and businesses…you reached out to help those who needed it most. The incredible work that you did in such difficult conditions has not gone unnoticed.
Rachel Notely Former Premier of Alberta
More recently, the company’s impact was felt during the 2021 Athabasca County peat moss fire where the regional fire department faced a dangerous water tender haul that took over an hour. Insufficient supply and safety risks on a busy highway hampered fire suppression efforts. Trident Pumps intervened, deploying a mobile system to access nearby water sources. This reduced refill time to just six minutes, cutting turnaround from 66 to 12 minutes. The result? Water delivery capacity jumped from 4,000 to 20,000 gallons per hour. Fire crews were able to double their firefighting lines, eliminate the highway hazards, and use more aggressive tactics, ultimately bringing the fire under control.
Environmental Stewardship
Unlike many climate resilience technologies, Trident’s TPS does not require additional infrastructure or substantial investment to implement. It navigates wetlands, forested areas, and varied elevations without road construction—ideal for sensitive ecosystems and Indigenous lands. The system also supports water reuse, enabling the transfer of water to storage areas or dugouts during floods for later use in irrigation, dust control, or drought reserves. Trident Pumps' technology demonstrates a commitment to both environmental protection and stewardship.
Trident Pump Inc…was built to change who gets to respond, when, and how. Our system was designed so that a two - four-person crew in a remote community can deploy life-saving infrastructure in under an hour—without waiting for the cavalry.
Rick Baksza COO, Trident Pumps
Trident Pumps has worked with multiple different partners, including British Columbia Wildfire Service (BCWS), Parks Canada, the Municipality of Wabasca, and the Regional Fire Department of Athabasca County. Working with Indigenous communities is also foundational to Trident Pumps’ mission. The company is currently working with Bigstone Cree Nation, a community that experiences at least one wildfire evacuation annually. By adopting the TPS at Chipewyan Lake during the 2023 wildfire season, Bigstone Cree Nation dramatically improved the efficiency of their natural disaster response. Ongoing engagements with other Nations in Alberta and British Columbia are focused on training, equipment ownership, and local economic participation. These partnerships are powerful reminders of how the right tech can empower communities to rely less on external first responder crews and protect their own assets, sacred sites, and lands.
Communities meeting relevant readiness criteria may also be eligible to register their TPS units and trained personnel under AEMA and BCWS’s Single Resource contract framework. While this remains subject to operational needs and review, it presents a future opportunity for qualified communities to support provincial response under a fee-for-service structure.
Rick Baksza COO, Trident Pumps
Innovation for Resilient Communities
In the face of growing unpredictable and extreme weather conditions, Canadian innovation like Trident Pumps offers a chance for smaller communities to be resilient. Trident Pumps represents homegrown innovation with global potential—Canadian-owned and operated, Trident sources 90% of every pump system in Canada, with design, manufacturing, and assembly based in Alberta. However, their system can support communities across the world, from wildfire-prone California, flood-vulnerable Asia, or drought-stricken Australia—places where rapid, mobile water systems are urgently needed.
Their vision for the future? Aside from national and global expansion, Trident Pumps aims to launch a public-facing portal with app integration to highlight current areas of deployment. They also hope to work with large energy and transportation providers for corridor fire mitigation and flood response capacity, and insurance companies and risk managers in resilience planning and loss prevention. They also intend to expand their work with Indigenous communities in Canada who, as Baksza notes, “need systems that work with nature, not against it, and who deserve direct control over their emergency planning and execution.”
Climate change is already here, and industries, communities, and ecosystems must adapt now.
Earth Tech: Adapt accelerates ventures with innovations designed to help mitigate the effects of rising temperatures and sea levels, extreme weather, and shifting ecosystems. Learn more about Foresight's Earth Tech: Adapt program.
