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PROVO — A local businessman recently secured $300,000 on "Shark Tank" for his innovative product that aims to prevent kitchen fires.
FireAvert founder Peter Thorpe appeared on the ABC program Tuesday night, where shark Lori Greiner offered him the money in exchange for 10 percent of its profits.
Thorpe said getting on "Shark Tank" was a "big milestone" for him. He went into the experience targeting Greiner, and she took the bait.
Every four and a half minutes, a United States fire department responds to a kitchen fire, according to Thorpe, a firefighter in Provo. Thorpe has responded to multiple kitchen fires, which commonly occur after a resident forgets to turn off the stove.
By plugging a stove into the FireAvert and plugging the FireAvert to the wall, the product syncs to a household smoke detector and shuts off the stove after hearing the smoke detector, Thorpe said.
"This product is the only product out there that prevents that from ever happening," Thorpe said.
FireAvert has been on the market for two years, but Thorpe did a 60-second pitch for "Shark Tank" in May and flew to Los Angeles to face the sharks in June.
Thorpe had one shot and one hour to negotiate with the sharks, though only 8 of those 60 minutes were shown on TV.
"You're really nervous," Thorpe said. "I didn't know how it was going to look. You don't know how it's going to portray the company or yourself, so it's nervewracking but also very exciting."
Wednesday, Thorpe ran a "Shark Tank" special on the FireAvert website. Consumers could purchase the product for $99, almost $100 less than the normal price, until 10 p.m.
Thorpe thinks it's too early to tell if his product has reduced the number of kitchen fires but said that is his goal.
