Fireman's Invention is Semi-Finalist for International Award

V1 Staff |

Eau Claire firefighter Jeff Dykes may have a million-dollar idea – literally. Dykes’ business, Northern Star Fire, is a semi-finalist for a Powerful Answers Award, a worldwide technology competition sponsored by Verizon Wireless. If the business is named a finalist next month in the award competition’s Emergency Response category, it would be eligible for up to a $1 million prize. Dykes’ invention – which may become available to the public as soon as late 2015 – is a device that would allow firefighters or other emergency workers to re-orient themselves in low-visibility environments, potentially saving their lives if they’ve become disoriented by smoke. Last fall, Northern Star Fire won the Idea Challenge, the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corp.’s  annual competition for Chippewa Valley entrepreneurs. “Northern Star Fire has developed a small/affordable product that can save lives all throughout the world, not only in firefighters but divers, hazmat, military, and so on,” says Luke Hanson, executive director of the Eau Claire EDC.

To learn more about the Powerful Answers Award, visit www.verizon.com/powerfulanswers/award/.