Firefighters Warn Drones Could Hinder Battle Against California Wildfires
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Firefighters sent a strong message discouraging those thinking about flying their drones into fire zones.
The warning is straightforward—if you fly a drone over a fire zone, fire crews can't fly at the same time.
Cal Fire says drones are becoming an increasing problem, interrupting wildfire fighting efforts in California four times in the last week.
"Our real concern with drones and our aircraft is the potential for mid-air collision," said chief of flight operations Dennis Brown.
He says firefighting efforts from the air have to be grounded when a drone is spotted above a fire.
"There's been documented accidents with helicopters where just a small piece of plastic headliner is blown out of an aircraft and hit a tail rotor and taken the aircraft out of the sky," he said.
Halting efforts in the air also affects efforts on the ground, said Shawna Legarza with the U.S. Forest Service.
"When we shut down the operations, that means homes continue to be threatened, natural resources continue to be threatened and that's the last thing we want to have happen," she said.
Meanwhile state Sen. Ted Gaines says he's looking at legislation to make sure drone users don't put fire crews and the public in harm's way.
"We just feel the penalties ought to be stiffer and in terms of fines, higher fines, and that ought to include an option of incarceration if its severe enough," he said. "We just cannot allow recreational use in very serious situations. these are life and death situations for the firefighters, for the pilots but also for the inhabitants of communities where the fires are occurring."