Fire departments in Arizona are considering more and more how UAS could benefit their operations.

Division Chief Don Devendorf believes that the Prescott Fire Department could find various ways to use this technology, especially considering that the department's response area includes mountain terrain right in town, along with other “usual city” firefighting challenges.

“They have great use in locating lost and injured campers and hikers in areas with poor GPS ability due to terrain,” Devendorf says via the Daily Courier. “As technology and payload increase, we would also have the availability of delivering a phone, a radio, water, or first aid supplies, to people that needed it in advance of us being able to reach them.”

Devendorf notes that in town, a payload that includes a thermal-imaging camera would be helpful.

“We would be able to look for hotspots in structures, especially from the roof, with much greater value and large commercial buildings,” Devendorf explains. “The infrared cameras would allow us to search for people based on body heat, so we wouldn’t need light in order to see people.”

Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority Chief Scott Freitag says that his agency is also considering the technology as an option for its operations.

“We are looking at the possibility of purchasing a drone. The intent is more for search and rescue, but it can be used to get good aerial views of larger structure fires, or the early stages of a wildland event,” Freitag says. “In conditions as we are seeing now – high winds and dry – it could be used during a house fire to monitor conditions further away checking for spot grass fires caused by embers being blown.”

This was demonstrated back in 2017 during a sawmill fire. Firefighters were unable to see the hotspots they needed to extinguish as a result of thick, black smoke. Additionally, some of the fire was burning under the surface of the ground.

With this being the reality, Denny Foulk, Yavapai County’s emergency manager at the time, called Matt Mintzmyer, an instructor in the UAV program at Yavapai College, for help.

Foulk says that initially, some of the fire officials “didn’t seem very interested” in what a UAS was capable of doing, but he showed them the benefits that the technology offered, including being able to fly right over the scene, at 200 feet, and send back live video from the infrared camera. The aircraft was also able to see the hot spots clearly.

“What you had in the Sawmill Fire that was really unique was that the fire was burning subsurface, and that created a potentially dangerous situation,” Foulk explains. “Somebody could be walking on the surface and not know there was a huge hotspot underneath, and fall through.”

Foulk and Devendorf both agree that the technology is helpful in certain instances.

“Under certain circumstances, those tools are very appropriate,” Foulk says.

Devendorf adds, “all in all, really cool stuff could be possible for fire and EMS using drones.”