I think I posted this in another thread somewhere but it fits better here. We had an apartment fire just up the street from our house about three weeks ago. I sent up the bird from my back yard and then flew it down near the fire. I kept it above 200' and pulled it back about 300' so that I was well out of the way and then I went into an orbit around the whole scene. When I got through the first battery and pulled it down to switch out, one of the guys from the Fire Marshall's office saw me changing the battery and came over. He just asked a few questions and then asked if I could play back some of the video for him, so I did. Then he wanted to know was I going to fly again and after saying yes, he then asked could I fly it to specific spots and get in really close to which I gladly agreed to do. Anyway it was a couple of hours before they had the fire knocked completely down and started mopping up so I had plenty of time to charge some batteries so I went back down there during cleanup and the guy asked me again to fly in to specific spots so he could see. I even ran back to the house and put everything on a stick and gave it to them. The fire chief even came over and asked if he could get copies for them so they could post on their website. Which I knew all of the guys there as I have worked as a resource with Emergency Management for many years, but they could just as easily have been an a$$ about it too.
Having been around EM though for a long time I can see where there could be potential problems with random drones flying around scenes. Large wildfires aren't the only places where you have air operations going on. I have been to many a search and rescue mission, car accident, house fire, etc. Where you had air ops as part of the response. Highway Patrol, Medevac, CAP just to name a few are sometimes needed at responses and you don't want a random drone operator that you can't communicate with, and you have no clue what his next move is going to be, to put your operation at risk. That is why they shut down all air ops because they just don't know. The reality though in the word today is a lot of fire departments are using drones themselves and if they are trying to fly their birds in response to an emergency, then they don't need someone they don't know and can't communicate with in their airspace. That is the real reason the FAA put that "never fly near emergency operations" rule in place is because communications is everything in any emergency response and some random drone pilot that doesn't know how emergency operations work or have any line of communication with the response crews can really cause a lot of problems.
If there isn't a TFR zone in place, stay back well away from the area especially if you aren't sure if they will be conducting Air Ops in response to the emergency. If you KNOW or SUSPECT they are conducting Air Ops (like in a wild land fire operation) DON'T FLY AT ALL. To do so is absolutely stupid and as you have seen in the news can land you in jail. If you are flying around, well back from an emergency scene, remember that even local TV stations have helicopter news crews and they are always looking a good fire/accident. Remember they are out there and could be down in lower airspace. News crews are more and more using drones as well so keep that in mind. Also remember that MOST news people are not our (drone community) friends. When was the last time you saw a really POSITIVE news story on personal drones? Everyone I have seen paints us all in the same light as terrorists and a danger to everyone. Any appearance of you not following the rules, and the media sees it, you will be breaking news at 6:00.
