David McKeen is demonstrating the Wall of Water using water from the Ottawa River.

The purpose of his “wildfire protection device” is not to fight fires, but to prevent them. McKeen describes his invention as a “sprinkler system on steroids.”

If a home or a business is in the path of a wildfire, but has been thoroughly pre-soaked, it can be saved from flying embers, McKeen says. All it takes for the Wall of Water to do that job is enough fuel to power the engine and a water source less than a meter deep, he adds. A lake, a river, a pond, a swimming pool. Even salt water from an ocean will do.

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“I can do it myself, and I’m 77 years old,” he says.

On with the demonstration. McKeen starts up an engine that pumps water with a roar.

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