Scott Grant, the chief of the Moosonee Volunteer Fire
Department, says a $46,000 investment has already saved two lives in the last
week alone.
A DJI 30 Matrice thermal drone, purchased by the department
just over a year ago, has already flown to more than a dozen incidents in the
region, including finding a man lost in the bush on Wednesday
night.
And on Sunday night volunteer firefighters located a
woman – already showing signs of hypothermia – trapped on an ice chunk in
the Moose River.
The dramatic rescue began with a call to 9-1-1 and local
firefighters about 9:30 p.m.
"There's a woman, she's out there screaming on the
ice," Grant said. "Obviously she seems lost and she's quite far out
there."
A couple of weeks earlier, the ice had begun its imminent,
annual breakup, and several patches of open water were visible.
Grant said he contacted his drone team, who met him by the
shore of the river. The sun had set, and crew's flashlights became nearly
useless in trying to find the woman on the river. Grant spoke to the lady using
a bullhorn, encouraging her to remain calm while teams planned a route across
the treacherous ice.
"I'm sure it's quite terrifying being out there,
especially when it's getting dark out," Grant said. "We could barely
make her out at that point. And we can't send crews out on an ice surface
without knowing the location of where they're going."
Out of fear or panic, the lady also began wandering across
the ice floe, Grant said, making it difficult to pin her exact location down.
It also put her in danger of plunging into the icy water.
While cold-water rescue teams and firefighters prepared on
shore, Grant deployed the drone team.
"We ended up locating her approximately 600 meters from
shore," Grant said, adding that the drone's thermal camera was able to
locate her in the dark, "locking on" her location.
"Once we had her location, we ordered the drone to
hover directly over top of the individual. So even though we could not see her,
we knew exactly where she was."
Rescue teams then were able to navigate to the point, set
the woman in an inflatable vessel, and pull her back to shore.
The entire operation, he said, took about 40-45 minutes, in
a situation where every minute counts.
Once on shore, Grant said, the woman was taken to a local
health clinic with signs of hypothermia. She has since been "feeling
better," Grant said, and is resting at home.
The Drone in Action
Grant says the drone represents a "fantastic
opportunity" for search and rescue operations.
"Even if we know where the individual is, let's say, on
the ice," Grant said. "We can use that drone and put it up in the air
and get a good 360 degree view of what we're going into."
"It definitely gives us a lot more confidence to be
able to know exactly what we're getting into or give us a better idea of what
we're entering," Grant said. "It gives us a really good ability to
plan further a few steps ahead of time."
The drone allows for a full aerial survey of the area,
saving hours of work for rescue teams, who typically will search an area by
arranging themselves and covering ground in a grid-pattern.
"It really also helps ensure that no area gets
missed," he said. "No area gets passed over."
The Moosonee Volunteer Fire Department joins a list of
emergency services using drone technology to save lives, or in some
cases, investigate crimes.
In 2021, SafeSight Exploration announced they had developed a new drone specifically adapted to operate
in underground mine rescue situations, where debris and smoke can obstruct
rescuers.
Ted Hanley, vice-president of Ontario Mine Rescue, said a
rescue scenario underground presents a more challenging environment in which to
operate a drone, because there are many unknowns, and smoke, fire and debris
can impede their sensors.
"The UAV [drone] or any robotic technology that's
unmanned, being able to inspect an area during an emergency is potentially
bringing us back that missing percentage of information that can allow us to
make a safe decision on whether to send or not send rescuers into an
area," Henley said.
Shared from CBC.CA
