Those living in and around fire zones were also told to stop using drones to capture the scene.

[Tofino]

How is a drone going to prevent fire fighters from entering an area? No intelligent drone pilot would fly over a fire. They're probably shooting from a long distance away with their zoom.

There are know cases where drones have grounded aircraft fighting fires because the pilots were flying against the regulations. Last year there were drones flying in the Jasper fire area and all aircraft were grounded until these idiots were caught. Stay out of the air in fire zones

 

[BigAl07]

How is a drone going to prevent fire fighters from entering an area? No intelligent drone pilot would fly over a fire. They're probably shooting from a long distance away with their zoom.

There have been several documented cases of fire suppression aircraft aborting missions due to UAS activity in the area. If they see or are made aware of a rogue drone in the area they can't/wont enter the area due to SAFETY reasons. If you're not a part of the acting team then they have no way of knowing your intentions, skills, or anything about you. They ABORT the mission and the fires run unchecked.

If it were your home/family/farm in harms way and the Fire Suppression Aircraft were forced away due to some drone operator wanting to "grab that great picture" or worse "gather evidence" how would you feel?

Keep in mind these aircraft are operating in some DIRE conditions. They are flying LOW, HEAVY, usually marginal visibility (think SMOKE), rough terrain, and operating at the extreme edge of the aircraft's operating envelope. It's possible an emergency evasive maneuver to avoid a rogue UAS could cause loss of control and put the aircrew and boots on the ground in a bad (aka DEADLY) situation.

 

[Tofino]

There have been several documented cases of fire suppression aircraft aborting missions due to UAS activity in the area. If they see or are made aware of a rogue drone in the area they can't/wont enter the area due to SAFETY reasons. If you're not a part of the acting team then they have no way of knowing your intentions, skills, or anything about you. They ABORT the mission and the fires run unchecked.

If it were your home/family/farm in harms way and the Fire Suppression Aircraft were forced away due to some drone operator wanting to "grab that great picture" or worse "gather evidence" how would you feel?

Keep in mind these aircraft are operating in some DIRE conditions. They are flying LOW, HEAVY, usually marginal visibility (think SMOKE), rough terrain, and operating at the extreme edge of the aircraft's operating envelope. It's possible an emergency evasive maneuver to avoid a rogue UAS could cause loss of control and put the aircrew and boots on the ground in a bad (aka DEADLY) situation.

Excellent wording BigAl

 

[SethB]

If there are active aircraft fighting fires in the area, yes. Stay away. If not, capture the evidence of the crimes that are being committed. None of these fires are "natural."

Self-appointed volunteers are better at generating leads for real investigators. “Capturing evidence” is not a role for civilians.

Police, sheriff, and fire agencies have trained professional investigators. I’ve interviewed a handful of law enforcement, fire, and search and rescue air team members, NONE of them want untrained people involved in emergency response operations.

Many search and rescue teams are staffed by volunteers, and welcome new people, including drone pilots. It starts with training in SAR, because everyone needs to know the operation, before joining any specialized teams like aerial search.

Emergency response has a strict command structure because without it untrained volunteers frequently become casualties needing rescue themselves. Everyone involved is very intolerant of people getting in the way of their vital mission. They own the airspace in fire events, it officially becomes controlled airspace. Stay out.

And, yes, some wildfires start “naturally” with lightning strikes.

 

[Dronecation]

Self-appointed volunteers are better at generating leads for real investigators. “Capturing evidence” is not a role for civilians.

Police, sheriff, and fire agencies have trained professional investigators. I’ve interviewed a handful of law enforcement, fire, and search and rescue air team members, NONE of them want untrained people involved in emergency response operations.

Many search and rescue teams are staffed by volunteers, and welcome new people, including drone pilots. It starts with training in SAR, because everyone needs to know the operation, before joining any specialized teams like aerial search.

Emergency response has a strict command structure because without it untrained volunteers frequently become casualties needing rescue themselves. Everyone involved is very intolerant of people getting in the way of their vital mission. They own the airspace in fire events, it officially becomes controlled airspace. Stay out.

And, yes, some wildfires start “naturally” with lightning strikes.

"Wildfires typically start either from lightning or from human activity, according to fire expert and Queen’s University fellow Edward Struzik.

Struzik said that lightning ignites between a third to a half of the fires seen in Canada, but the majority of cases are human-caused."

What causes most wildfires in Canada, and why we’re ‘primed’ for a lot more | Globalnews.ca

Though it is not yet determined what caused a number of this year's earlier-than-usual and more widespread wildfires, there are two common reasons wildfires begin.

globalnews.ca

 

[Tofino]

"Wildfires typically start either from lightning or from human activity, according to fire expert and Queen’s University fellow Edward Struzik.

Struzik said that lightning ignites between a third to a half of the fires seen in Canada, but the majority of cases are human-caused."

What causes most wildfires in Canada, and why we’re ‘primed’ for a lot more | Globalnews.ca

Though it is not yet determined what caused a number of this year's earlier-than-usual and more widespread wildfires, there are two common reasons wildfires begin.

globalnews.ca

Latest stat from 2022 shows 22% of all B.C. fires were human caused the rest were started by lightning. 2023 fire season has not ended yet so no stat on that one.

 

[EricJT]

Yes, the drone pilots might catch the arsonists and other bad actors... Capturing evidence of the crime is bad...

Another conspiracy theory is born!

 

[EricJT]

How is a drone going to prevent fire fighters from entering an area? No intelligent drone pilot would fly over a fire. They're probably shooting from a long distance away with their zoom.

"probably"? Do you know the distance the aerial aircraft are covering? Also, "probably" doesn't include the selfish flyers that get closer to the fires.

 

[anotherlab]

Yes, the drone pilots might catch the arsonists and other bad actors... Capturing evidence of the crime is bad...

This is Venn diagram for that scenario...

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Latest stat from 2022 shows 22% of all B.C. fires were human caused the rest were started by lightning. 2023 fire season has not ended yet so no stat on that one.

Human caused would include arson and accidental too, people makes mistakes in fire prone regions.
Campfires / cooking with open flames, grinding welding type ‘hot work’, auto exhaust on dry grass, lit cigarettes out car windows, etc.
We’ve had some of those things in recent years here causing loss of life fires, and in those cases prosecution has very often happened.
We get a small number of arson (firebug) cases, they are not treated mildly here, but still persist each year.

 

[Dronecation]

Latest stat from 2022 shows 22% of all B.C. fires were human caused the rest were started by lightning. 2023 fire season has not ended yet so no stat on that one.

Not certain where you got those numbers from, but they differ from Gov't stats:
The current 10-year average, taken from 2012 to 2022, is 1,483 wildfires from April 1 to March 31 the following year. On average, 42% of these are human-caused and 58% are lightning-caused.

The following table shows general statistics of wildfire activity in B.C. since 2008.

Wildfire Averages

Average wildfire numbers for British Columbia

www2.gov.bc.ca

 

[BigAl07]

Come on gang. We all know the RULES.

13. Discussions about politics, weaponry and religion are not permitted in the community and will be closed or removed.

I've deleted some posts and done some "House Cleaning". Let's get back on track and NOT go down that rabbit hole. Members get too passionate and end up BANNED over that stuff.

 

[fivesense]

Another conspiracy theory is born!

Can you please elaborate?

 

[EricJT]

Can you please elaborate?

That arsonists are a big part of the problem....sorry, I can't find the specific post now.

 

[tls3601]

We have had problems in the past in the Prescott National Forest in the past. As this area is a hotbed for Forest Fires. Seems as though most folks have wised up, which is a good thing

 

[mavic3usa]

More articles about the situation:

Washington State all-cap implores drone pilots to avoid wildfires

Washington State's Department of Natural Resources issues all-cap appeal for the many drones violating wildfire airspace bans to avoid them.

dronedj.com

 

[AlanL]

More articles about the situation:

Washington State all-cap implores drone pilots to avoid wildfires

Washington State's Department of Natural Resources issues all-cap appeal for the many drones violating wildfire airspace bans to avoid them.

dronedj.com

That press release made it into most of the local newspapers in Washington this morning. We have bad enough air quality right now from the various fires burning up here and it sucks knowing someone is giving the whole drone community a bad name by making things worse.

 

[Dronecation]

More articles about the situation:

Washington State all-cap implores drone pilots to avoid wildfires

Washington State's Department of Natural Resources issues all-cap appeal for the many drones violating wildfire airspace bans to avoid them.

dronedj.com

"This week, the Washington Department of Natural Resources could take no more of the illicit, dangerous, irresponsible, and unimaginably stupid drone incursions into proscribed wildfire airspaces, and issued an all-caps appeal for pilots to stop being morons.

“Can’t believe we have to say this, but: STOP FLYING DRONES NEAR WILDFIRES,” Washington’s Department of Natural Resources pleaded on social media. “DRONES GROUND OUR AIRCRAFT. Our firefighting operations are more important than those 12 likes you’ll get on Instagram.”

Above quote really speaks volumes!

 

[shb]

How many posts are we going to have about drone interference in firefighting. If they can't fight fires with drones around, they should get a job at McDonald's.

 

[Beet]

And it's worth noting that aircraft fighting wildfires often need to refill from nearby bodies of water. You may not see or even be aware of the fire from, say, a lake that's on the other side of a ridge from the fire itself, but if aircraft are refilling from that lake then it's just as critical to the firefighting effort. So as part of your due diligence it's important to familiarize yourself with firefighting activities in your area. Your provincial or state government should have a web site with the details of operations currently underway.

When fire is active you never know where they could be.