San Bernardino County Fire Department Using Drones To Reconnoiter Reports Of Fires In Homeless-Ridden County Seat

The San Bernardino County Fire Department will conduct a 30-day duration testing of drones to determine their effectiveness in assisting fire response in the county seat.
The unmanned and remotely-piloted flying vehicles will be used to assess from the air fires to determine their intensity and type. Often, fires that are reported by telephone are of an unknown type, and may involve a vehicle, structure or vegetation.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department and other local fire protection and prevention agencies and districts have learned that a majority of what are initially cataloged as “unknown fire types” turn out to be false alarms or unfounded when firefighters in firefighting vehicles arrive at the location. In many cases the fires are barbecues, or sometimes cooking or warming fires utilized by the homeless, which do not represent a hazard .
In the last week, the San Bernardino County Fire Department, which serves the City of San Bernardino, has responded to 53 unknown fire calls in the City of San Bernardino alone and 833 during the final three months of 2024, according to a statement put out by the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
Operators with unmanned aerial vehicle licenses direct the drones over the areas targeted for survey.
The use of drones by firefighting agencies is not unheard of. The devices, equipped with high-resolution cameras, have been used to map fire perimeters, look for fire and flood victims and to reconnoiter hazardous material spills and mishaps.
In many cases, a drone can make a survey of a danger zone in one-fifth the time it takes to get a manned unit in place. When a manned response is appropriate, information from the drone survey can ensure that the right equipment and apparatus is dispatched to the scene of the incident.

San Bernardino County’s drones include not just cameras but thermal imaging capability.

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