Challenges with fire outbreaks in cities and forests
There are several challenges for the fire department on how to react to fire outbreaks. In cities, smoke, buildings and other obstacles can make it tricky for the fire department to estimate what the size and the risks are of the fire. It is also challenging to determine what the damage of the fire is and what resources need to be deployed after a fire from the ground.
In big forests, the bad infrastructure can make it difficult for teams to monitor these areas from the ground. Moreover it is from the ground (almost) impossible to estimate how big a forest fire is. Finally, a fire commander can hardly direct the front line without having the eyes in the field.
The deployment of drones to scan large areas fast from the sky
To judge/monitor fire outbreaks more easily, the fire department makes more and more use of the deployment of new resources from the sky. Think here of different gas detectors or thermal imaging cameras fixed onto the drones with which fast decisions can be made in emergency situations. Reacting fast by the fire department protects people and their belongings and will response teams moreover feel safer.
With drones you fly easily and fast over buildings and obstacles or over the tree line. Then with a gas detector or thermal camera you are able to search through the smoke for the core of a fire or to track down potential people in danger. With the deployment of drones you are capable of scanning a large area rapidly to determine the scope and threat of a fire.
By deploying drones with the fire department teams can warned by streaming live videos to a command centre. Then the right package of people and resources are composed and deployed. Finally, with the drones it is possible to monitore the remaining threats and insecurities from the aire and establish the damage for future analyses.
The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced with a built-in thermal imaging camera
The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced is a compact drone suited for the visualisation of large areas when fire outbreaks occur in forests and cities. The drone has a 48 Megapixel camera with 4x lossless (without losing quality) zooom and 32x digital zoom. The thermal imaging camera features a resolution of 640 x 512 pixels, a 30 Hz framerate and a 16x thermal zoom. furthermore the drone offers a flight time up to 31 minutes, with a top speed of 722 km/u and a range up to 10 kilometers.
The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced features a couple of tools for optimal use of the drone:
- With the DJI Pilot app it is possible to inspect preset routes. This way the entire forest area can be monitored for (potential) fire outbreaks.
- Ocusync 2.0 ensures a more stable connection between drone and remote controller over a large distance without any interferences.
- With the DJI Thermal Tool 2.0 you are able to analyse all thermal images and other information.
