Officials ask citizens to keep unmanned aircraft away from wildfires
As wildfires rage across the region, Minnesota state officials are asking unmanned aircraft operators to keep their devices away from the flames.
Should one stray into a zone where aerial firefighting is underway, Department of Natural Resources personnel will ground their airplanes or wait to respond to a call until the unmanned aircraft is confirmed gone.
“If we have something like this happen, we’re going to have to pull our air resources off the fire because we can’t be running into (a device) with a helicopter rotor or something on an airplane,” said Ron Stoffel, wildfire suppression supervisor for the DNR.
Wildfires also continue burning in North Dakota, but the state does not have an official policy against flying unmanned aircraft, according to Cooperative Fire Protection Manager Anthony Schultz.
“Right now, the North Dakota Forest Service does not have a policy on citizens using unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor fire or anything of that nature,” he said.
Safety concern
Taking planes and helicopters away from firefighting efforts isn’t optimal, but unmanned aircraft could pose safety threats to the DNR pilots and equipment. Both firefighting aircraft and unmanned aircraft operate in similar airspace, usually below 500 feet.
“Conditions for our pilots are tough enough,” said Bill Schuster, DNR wildfire aviation supervisor, in a department news release. “We don’t want to worry about when and where a drone could pop up into their flight path.”
In the release, Schuster added there had been one incident this year of an unmanned aircraft observed close to a wildfire near Ostego, Minn., located northwest of the Twin Cities.
While most unmanned devices are made of plastic, the battery packs they contain have the potential to be damaging in a midair collision with an airplane.
Stoffel said the department doesn’t know how much damage could be caused if two aircraft were to collide until an incident happens.
“I don’t want to find out.” Stoffel said.
Stay away
Schuster asks unmanned aircraft operators to stay at least 5 miles away from wildfires — a distance he said allows firefighters to do their jobs safely.
Aircraft and crew are poised to respond quickly to wildfires because of strategic locations around Minnesota, according to the DNR. The department may dispatch aircraft within minutes of a fire igniting — though response may depend upon what the flames are threatening.
Fire department personnel that see or suspect an unmanned aircraft is operating near a wildfire are asked to contact the DNR and report the incident so the department can potentially remove its aircraft from the area.
Unmanned aircraft have been used by government agencies to monitor fires, but they’re used in areas firefighting aircraft are not flying, Stoffel said.
As of April 13, Minnesota had recorded 685 fires that had burned 11,971 acres. On Friday, much of northwest Minnesota was under an extreme fire warning — the highest level on the department’s danger scale.
In North Dakota, the state’s northeastern corner remained under a red flag warning for wildfires much of Friday, according to the National Weather Service. High winds and low humidity put the region in critical fire weather condition.
http://www.inforum.com/news/3725135-officials-ask-citizens-keep-unmanned-aircraft-away-wildfires
