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.