Fighting fires in California hobbled by hobby drones

Fighting fires in California hobbled by hobby drones

Published 2 July 2015

 

 

A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service said last Thursday that private drone flights in restricted airspace around forest fires have impeded the efforts of firefighting crews to deal with a blaze in the San Bernardino Mountains. The incident has increased the fears of fire and aviation officials that the growing national use of hobby drones could seriously disrupt traditional air traffic and put lives at risk.

A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service said last Thursday that private drone flights in restricted airspace around forest fires have impeded the efforts of firefighting crews to deal with a blaze in the San Bernardino Mountains.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, a recent failed mission of a DC-10 dropping fire retardant near the Nevada border cost the Forest Service between $10,000 to $15,000 and extended the life of the fire.
“These folks who are handling these drones, I have to assume they have no idea what they’re doing,” said Chon Bribiescas, a spokesman for the Service. “They not only endangered the folks on the ground, but they endanger the pilots.”
The plane had to divert and two smaller accompanying craft were forced to jettison their payloads in order to land after a hobby drone was spotted buzzing near the drop site at 11,000 feet. That same day, officials involved in fighting the San Bernardino blaze scrambled to remind citizens in the area that it is both dangerous and illegal to fly such hobby craft.
As the planes returned to their base, pilots spotted another drone at 1,200 feet, far above the normal 400-foot limit imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for unmanned craft.
“It’s infuriating,” Bribiescas added.
Authorities announced that they could not locate the drone operators, but described the craft as having orange or red fixed wings with a wingspan of foour feet.
Mike Eaton, a forest aviation officer for the Service, said police would now be patrolling the mountain roads looking for those who may be flying the drones in the area. The incident has increased the fears of fire and aviation officials that the growing national use of hobby drones could seriously disrupt traditional air traffic and put lives at risk.
“The fire certainly grew because we weren’t able to drop the retardant,” he said. “We had to shut down subsequent missions that could have possibly contained the fire.”
On Thursday morning, the fire had grown to cover 23,199 acres and was 21 percent contained. By the afternoon it was spreading even further.
Norm Erickson, a community resident who works with fire officials said he was surprised to learn that someone had flown a drone into the fire area.
“If the blaze continued to burn out of control, they’ll be responsible for it,” he said.