Canadian drone hardware, service, and training company Volatus Aerospace has announced the addition of two new specialized, certification-required activities to its broadening menu, notably the ability to provide aerial tech for use in battling the nation’s proliferating wildfires.
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Specialist public safety and first responder drone consultancy Skyfire says it successfully assisted wildfire-plagued utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to obtain a Federal Aviation Administration waiver to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) infrastructure flights throughout the entire state of California.
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Against the growing number and increased destruction of wildfires across the planet over the last several years, it’s become more frequent to hear reports of UAV assisting firefighters in the battle to put them out. Now the Australian state of Victoria is using drones to light fires as well.
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It’s common knowledge that fires are now a recurring and increasingly frequent calamity in many states and countries around the world – California being particularly vulnerable. Mindful of that, a San Francisco startup is attracting customers and investors alike with its drone- and tech-based service to map homes as the first step in maximizing their protection from wildfires.
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Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And that is unfortunately very true these days in the Canadian province of British Columbia, where a huge amount of fires have been raging. Now, Transport Canada has issued a statement reminding drone pilots to stay clear, and follow all the rules so as not to interfere with operations near wildfires.
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Spanish researchers are turning to drones packing Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors in their management of the nation’s forests facing the annual summer scourge of massive wildfires.
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The Minnesota Interagency Fire Center has sent out a message to drone pilots to remind them not to fly anywhere near wildfires. The fire department shared the reminder in a press release with a great way for everyone to remember it. When you fly, we can’t.
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Drone startup Robotto has developed its Autonomous Wildfire Recognition and Analytics (AWRA) drone to help firefighters better understand an active wildfire and stay one step ahead of it. Robotto is a spin-off of a full-year bachelor thesis in robotics at Aalborg University in Denmark.
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The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has sent out a reminder to all drone pilots to stay away from bushfires, with huge fines and possible jail time if you are caught. Every year Australia and the world receive a battering from bushfires, and firefighters don’t want to deal with drones.
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An illegal drone has grounded aerial firefighting efforts at the Cameron Peak Fire over in Colorado, resulting in authorities sending out an urgent warning message.
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According to a graphic released by the National Interagency Fire Center, known drone incursions into firefighting airspace are on the decline. Despite more drones being in the air than ever before, people seem to be better educated.
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During the DroneDeploy conference, remote pilot Gareth Pickford from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife shared how drones were used to assess the damage caused by the devastating bushfires, known as the Black Summer, earlier this year in Australia.
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An inquiry into the recent bushfires that swept through much of Eastern Australia is calling for more advanced drones and remote sensors to be used by firefighters. The inquiry also wants firefighters to have access to more data and AI to better understand the fire.
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Drones are coming in to help fight the effects from the wildfires that destroyed a large amount of land in Australia earlier this year. XAG has joined forces with the country’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELPW) and Heytesbury District Landcare Network (HDLN) to create the first post-fire drone seeding operation in Victoria, Australia.
An early bushfire detection system is currently seeking funding to be deployed before Australia’s next bushfire season thanks to UNSW Digital Grid Futures Institute, a research group headed by Professor Joe Dong. The new system will utilize drones equipped with an array of sensors to monitor changes that could mean a bushfire is nearing.
On the 23rd of January, reports came in of a C-130 Hercules water tanker disappearing from radar while supporting firefighters on the ground in the Australian bushfires. Fire crews on the ground later shared information of a plane going down, resulting in a fireball.
Earlier this month, a bushfire in the Perth suburb of Baldivis, Australia, didn’t allow firefighters to take advantage of aerial support for some time due to a rogue drone being spotted close to the fire. The aerial support was forced to hold off while the drone finally made its way back to the ground.
This year’s fire season in California has started out with massive fires in Los Angeles and near San Francisco. PG&E’s aging transmission lines form a huge risk as failing equipment can potentially start wildfires as was the case last year. The Camp Fire in 2018 was started by a powerline that came down from a transmission tower after one of the hooks that hold up the lines broke. An article in the Wall Street Journal investigates the status of the PG&E towers and lines in California and uses drone footage to show the aging equipment.
Even though the FAA recently put out a warning to not weaponize your drones, there are situations when a drone with self-igniting eggs or flame-throwers can help save lives. Check out this article by The Guardian about these ‘dragon’ drones.
Firefighters were forced to halt their fire fighting efforts due to a rogue drone flying above and around the Alaskan fire. Both the FAA and the local fire department have taken to social media to share their frustrations and concerns with rogue drones around fires.
In Spain, researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid work together with telecommunications corporation Telefonica, drone start-up Divisek Systems and drone operations company Dronitec to test the use of autonomous drones to fight wildfires. The drones to fight wildfires are part of a firefighting system that consists of a number of communication towers. Each of the towers is outfitted with a thermal camera and an autonomous drone that is stored in a special hangar.
We wrote about the Paradise Camp Fire before. In a matter of two days, 16 drone teams mapped the entire Paradise Camp Fire area. If that sounds impressive, it is because it is! Not only do you have the logistics of 16 drone teams to manage, think about the thousands and thousands of aerial photos that need to be collected, uploaded, processed, stitched and made available for the emergency responders and the general public. NBC has a great piece on this large-scale drone operation that also involved DroneDeploy and DJI. Jump in for more.
