Drone Saved Time, in Rescue of Kayakers

The Gazette June 13, 2019

A rescue of 11 kayakers — like the one Tuesday afternoon on the Upper Iowa River — usually would take Decorah volunteer firefighters one or two hours.

But thanks to drone technology, it took only three or four minutes to locate the stranded kayakers, said Zach Kerndt, whose duties with the fire department include being a licensed drone operator.

Before drones, “we’d have to go up river and basically get on the river and actually flow down the river to find them,” Kerndt said Thursday. “With the drone, we’re able to put it up in the air without putting anyone in harm’s way. ... It helps a lot.”

He said the rapid response could be lifesaving.

“It helps tremendously,” Kerndt said, specifically mentioning how a drone provides rescuers with a better “overall view of the area.”

Crews came to the aid Tuesday of a family of kayakers who became marooned on an island near Chimney Rock Park after a kayak capsized and left one family member clinging to a tree, authorities said.

Decorah bought a drone in 2016 to help with structure fires, grass fires, search-and-rescue operations and other law enforcement tasks. Since then, Kerndt said, the department has used it on four or five river rescues.

River rescues have been increasingly common for the Decorah department.

Firefighters typically handle four or five river rescues each year but have performed four already this year.

It’s a sign, Kerndt said, people need to be more careful on the water.

“We want everyone to enjoy the river,” he said. “But people need to make sure they take it seriously if there’s a tree across the river or hazards that are in the river.”

Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx attributed the increased number of river rescues to a “complete lack of knowledge, skill and awareness that this is a natural river” and to “drinking to complete inebriation.”

“We’ve had people ask if they’re going in a circle like the lazy river at a water park,” Marx said.

Marx said the family members rescued Tuesday — ranging in age from 6 to 71 — were not intoxicated, indicating lack of experience was the likely culprit.

The kayakers “got caught up in a tree,” Kerndt said.

The group — some from Cedar Rapids, some from India — was there for a family reunion, Marx said.

The family called 911 when they became stranded. Once the firefighters arrived, they provided the family with a portable radio for better reception. No one required medical attention.

Officers from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Department of Transportation assisted.

Nevada County Consolidated Fire’s UAV a versatile tool for firefighters

yubanet.com May 31, 2019

NEVADA CITY, Calif. – Nevada County Consolidated Fire District added an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to their toolbox and after close to a year, the UAV has proved a valuable addition.

Eight district personnel are certified to operate the UAV and recently we got a demonstration of some of its capabilities at Station 84.

Deputy Fire Marshal Mason explained the versatility of the UAV and how the agency uses the UAV/UAS (don’t call it a drone) in many situations.

During a structure fire, the drone can provide a 360-view of the structure, any adjacent buildings that may be impacted and, most importantly, the fire behavior. “We can send the UAV up and let it hover over the incident. It allows us to position our resources more efficiently and have visual contact with all our firefighters,” Mason said.

Multiple uses

The UAV is not just being used for structure fires, it can be deployed for any wildland fire and provide valuable reconnaissance.

River rescues, a big part of summer operations, are time-sensitive and were the major impetus to acquire the UAV. The UAV can cover a large swath of the Yuba, look for the missing person and pinpoint their location. While conventional communication in the river canyon can be spotty, the UAV uses satellite-based navigation and stays within visual range of the trained operators at all times. The district is scouting locations where the operators can see a large portion of the river and quickly direct the swift water rescue team to the patient.

The UAV can hover for 20 minutes on one battery, or fly 16-17 minutes during a river rescue – that’s about 3 miles of river canyon covered – and can fly at speeds up to 40 mph.

Hazardous materials and suspicious objects can also be safely inspected from a distance as the video above shows.

One use of the UAV that wasn’t initially obvious is defensible space inspections (DSI). Mason recounted a request from an out-of-county property owner for a defensible space inspection of a vacant parcel. “When we get a call asking for a DSI from a property owner, we can – with their permission –  fly over the property, send them the pictures and then set up a vegetation management plan.”

Upgrades and mutual aid

With the successful deployment of the UAV, the district now is looking to expanding the program. A second UAV and additional equipment for the existing one are on their wish list. The ability to carry a payload, like a floating device during a river rescue, requires an upgrade. The district is researching those options and the cost associated with it. Delivering a flotation device would be done by attaching the device to a lanyard module and carrying it to a stranded person. A camera with night-vision capabilities is another upgrade they are considering for search and rescue missions.

Meanwhile more firefighters will go through the operations training and increase the availability of the tool. “We can deploy the UAV at the request of another agency, it makes sense to share the resource and it’s part of the mutual aid we provide each other,” Mason said.