Drones To The Rescue

Drones to the Rescue: LAFD and DJI’s Partnership

The Los Angeles Fire Department has jumped on the drone bandwagon and is using this new technology to save lives. Along with New York and Chicago, Los Angeles has one of the largest fire departments in the country, responding to almost 500,000 calls per year. With this type of demand for their aid and resources, the LAFD has 258 fire engines, helicopters, ambulances, and now 11 firefighting drones. These unmanned aircrafts have already proven to be a huge success, so the fire department is looking to at least double their fleet of drones with DJI in the near future.

Most of the drones that the LAFD are currently utilizing were provided by DJI seeing as the two joined into an agreement back in April of this year. This partnership launched the LAFD to the top of the list of users of unmanned drones in firefighting efforts in the US. The drones provided by DJI have enabled fire departments to go beyond the capabilities of the human eye. For example, the most useful application has been the use of infrared technologies to combine what can be seen with the human eye along with heat signatures picked up by the drones sensors. This allows the incident commander to have a more complete visual of the problem at hand and make better decisions based on this.

The LAFD isn’t the only partner benefiting from the agreement. The Enterprise Partnerships Manager at DJI, Bill Chen stated, “through our two-way collaboration, DJI will receive valuable insight into the complexities of deploying drones for emergency situations in one of the most complex urban environments in the nation.” Chen goes on to say, “we are excited to be strengthening our partnership with the LAFD, one of the nation’s preeminent public safety agencies, to help them take advantage of DJI’s drone technology that has been purpose-built for the public safety sector.” The success of this partnership over the past several months has been enough to have the Battalion Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Richard Fields, looking to double the fleet.

With this doubled fleet, Fields plans on using these drones for specialized resources. Fields explains, “these include crews that deal with hazardous materials, urban search and rescue, marine environments and swift water rescues.” The technological needs of the LAFD go beyond simply the drones themselves, however. Fields goes on to say, “There are a lot of technologies that allows us to make the drone more versatile… the most valuable tool isn’t the drone; it’s the sensor.” The possibilities are nearly endless, and with the DJI and LAFD partnership, the scope of these endeavors are going to be reached sooner rather than later.

Drones with all of these incredible capabilities wouldn’t be possible without highly trained pilots. Fields states that the training for these types of pilots is particularly intense, requiring up to 80 hours of training and not with traditional commercial training. This need for specially trained pilots isn’t the only obstacle that the LAFD faces with this new endeavor. There is a growing concern in the US when it comes to relying on technologies that were developed in China. This is mostly derived from the issue that the Department of Homeland Security called out DJI about the potential of their technologies being used in espionage. Fields sees the value that this technology has provided, so he states that the solution to this security dilemma is for the US government to simply regulate DJI’s technologies.

These bumps in the road brings up a glaring point in this new world of technology. We need more pilots like described by Fields, we need developers that can create a wider range of functions on these drones, and we need regulators in government that know all about drone technology and how to handle it’s usage in our country. Schools and parents need to get on board. It’s time to get our kids prepared for their future and the future of drones. STEAM and DroneBlocks are striving to spread this awareness to schools and parents all across the country. We have developed a curriculum that we provide classrooms of students from Kindergarten and up. To learn more about what this curriculum brings to the table, you can read more here or simply contact us here.