Jesse Sprague: When the World Burns

In this episode, Eric talks with Jesse Sprague, founder of EchoSpectra, about why wildfire risk isn’t primarily a firefighting problem, but a data, process, and decision-making problem.

Jesse’s work sits at the intersection of geospatial science, field investigation, and real-world accountability. What begins as a conversation about wildfire mapping quickly expands into a deeper examination of how organizations handle risk, why more data can sometimes increase liability instead of clarity, and how many industries quietly avoid seeing what they are technically capable of measuring.

They explore how wildfire investigators, insurers, utilities, and governments have historically relied on fragmented tools, handwritten notes, and disconnected systems and why that breaks down as fires become more frequent, more destructive, and more legally scrutinized. Jesse explains how EchoSpectra helps teams document fire behavior, fuels, and origin-and-cause evidence in ways that are defensible, collaborative, and scalable.

Along the way, the conversation touches on pipeline safety, change detection, insurance economics, smoke as an unaccounted public health cost, and a recurring theme: ignoring information doesn’t eliminate responsibility. It only delays it.

This is a grounded conversation about risk, systems, and what happens when reality outpaces the processes designed to manage it.

Topics Covered