UAVs To Aid Fire Fighters
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The first thing that probably comes to any person’s mind in using unmanned aerial platforms is military needs, and especially missions gathering visual intelligence about the enemy on the battlefield. However, security services and search and rescue units, as well as others, are starting to understand the great advantage of using the UAV’s imaging capabilities. Emergency medical forces can use it for surveillance in order to get a wide perspective on mass casualty incidents, and police forces can benefit from its high altitude to assist in establishing better control of an area and to better monitor events with many participants. Now the Chicago Tribune reports that Fire Fighting forces have also seen the light and are making use of the flying vehicle’s unique perspective.
“It’s very new technology, but in the future I see this being used a lot in the fire service,” Schofield said. “It allows us to get an aerial view of the fire spreading, it allows us to put our water where it needs to be”, said Battalion Chief Mike Schofield.
The vehicle which was used in one of the recent fire incidents in Orland, Illionois, was carrying a camera mounted under its belly and held by four propellers that sounds like buzzing bees. One high ranked official of the local fire squad said that UAVS have been marketed for firefighting purposes for a couple years but in the past they’d been too large, heavy and expensive. Though the event was declared by aviation authorities as a pilot, firemen on the field, as well as the commanders, were please with the vehicle’s performance and with the capabilities it displayed durings its operation.
Local fire squads are not the only ones pleased with unmanned aerial vehicles’ performance during fire-management operations. The International Association of Fire Chiefs hopes to have a task force established to study the use of drones in firefighting this coming fall, as they can help prevent unnecessary risks to fire fighters’ lives as well as provide a bird’s eye point of view, which will make it easier for them to extinguish fire faster.
