By Matt Sloane
In the 13 years since 9/11, drones have gotten a bad rap.
They've been used by the United States military and armed forces around the world to rain destruction on our enemies from afar and are controlled by pilots in a windowless, air-conditioned, video-game-like room at a military base in Nevada.
Those aren't the drones we're talking about here, and while remotely flying a multimillion-dollar aircraft with missiles on it may be every little kid's dream, you can have just as much fun with a very useful, much less expensive system.
These drones-or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as we'll call them-are being adopted by realtors, filmmakers, farmers, and hobbyists alike. They're also being used successfully by many fire departments, search and rescue teams, and law enforcement agencies, and they just may save a life.
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| 1 The DJI Phantom Vision 2+ is a market leader in lightweight, easy-to-use UAVs. (Photo courtesy of DJI.) |
An increasing number of private citizens are showing up during emergencies with their drones, and it's important to understand how the technology works, where UAVs may be useful to you as an incident commander (IC), and when they can do more harm than good.
UAV Use in Public Safety
The potential uses for UAVs in the fire service are numerous, including active fire surveillance, thermal imaging, hazmat response, traffic and crowd oversight, public relations and marketing, and coverage of special events.
Take the case of a standard house fire. The first engine on scene rolls up on a two-story dwelling with smoke pouring out of the attic vents and no visible flames.
Step 1 is the scene size-up, where one or more firefighters take the time to walk around the structure and assess the fire from each side. They report back to the IC, and the fire suppression portion of the event begins.
But, what if all four sides aren't visible? What if your agency is a volunteer agency, and there's only one firefighter on the first-in vehicle? When seconds count, critical resources are being used to size up a scene before taking any action.
Enter a UAV. The first responding firefighter takes 30 seconds to get the aircraft up and running; puts it into the air; and, from the command vehicle, has a live view of all four sides of the structure.
Additional responding companies can use those real-time images to plan the attack, see the best places to park the apparatus, keep track of responding personnel, see active fire hot spots, and potentially even see victims hanging out of open windows or on balconies.
Although setting up the UAV may take as much time as the initial scene size-up, the amount of information gathered is significantly higher.
The benefits of UAVs are multiplied even more in a high-rise fire, where it may take crews several minutes to size up a fire on the 10th floor, or in a hazmat situation, where specialized teams and gear need to be brought in before anybody knows what's really happening at the site.
It's also important to consider when flying a UAV may not be appropriate. Strong winds and rain may make flying difficult, and you should never fly within an area where you may encounter low-flying commercial or private air traffic.
Flying too close to strong thermal updrafts around a fire could damage your equipment permanently, and personnel should avoid flying low over large crowds.
![2 The Decatur (GA) Fire Department t
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