Dublin Fire Brigade Is Set To Use Drones To Fight Fires By The End Of The Year

Dublin Fire Brigade is set the introduce drones in the fighting of fires by the end of the year.

They're currently formulating operational guidelines surrounding these unmanned flying devices, which will be used as a means to gather intelligence on emergency situations.

The machines will be used to locate missing people, measure the size of a fire and determine the best plan of action in dealing with a blaze.

Dennis Keeley, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, said,

When you pull up you often have a lot of smoke, and it’s not always immediately clear where the concentration of the fire is […] From an operational perspective, to have an overview, an ability to step back from the situation and a quick [visual] of an incident from an aerial shot can be quite advantageous.

Keeley told The Irish Times that the Dublin Fire Brigade wants the public’s support for the project involving drone technology,

It’s very early days. We want to be slow with this and make sure everyone moves along with this rather than being scared off.

Drones are already in use by UK fire services, using infrared and night-vision cameras to penetrate smoke and locate trapped people.

Six personnel of the Dublin Fire Brigade have already been trained in operating these drones in the last three months.

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