A Chinese earthquake rescue team deployed drones to light up the night and aid search and rescue operations after the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar.

[u/Red_Lotus_Alchemist]

[u/bnlf]

There are drones used by fire department connected to water as well to help put out fire on high buildings.

[u/s1ugg0 → u/bnlf]

Drones being used for putting water on a fire in a meaningful way is a LONG way off.

The first problem is weight. Water weighs 8.34 lbs per gallon. The smallest attack line we use is 1.75 inch hose line. A single section of 50 feet of a 1.75 attack line weighs 70lbs when charged with water. We often use many sections because 50 feet is a lot shorter than it sounds. Plus it would have to counter the recoil of the nozzle. There are helicopters that would struggle to do that.

The second problem is friction loss. The higher you go and the more hose you deploy the harder the pump has to work to maintain flow rate. Which can quickly over come even our massive pumps. It's why FDC connection points are mandidated in all multistory structures.

Now drones for observation and muling tools is a totally different matter. And that has already started. Even my vollie department in NJ is testing observation drones with a thermal camera.

[u/2xtc → u/s1ugg0]

How do these things exist and work then?

https://youtu.be/11enxgxsanU?si=lZZtSfdXmf5wssKi

[u/s1ugg0 → u/2xtc]

Please notice I said "putting water on a fire in a meaningful way". These drones are for such specific circumstances they are practically useless.

In the wildland fires they do not have the range or capacity to do suppression in any meaningful capacity. By the sheer volume of miles it would have to cover it could never respond to the scene fast enough to be useful. The fire will have grown too big for it's small reservoir of suppressant to work.

Take note that wildland firefighters all over the world aren't asking for suppression drones. They're begging for things like the Canadair CL-415. Which can put more suppressant on a fire faster than anything else.

In structures fire it only works in these sterile commercial tests. Two things to know about structure fires. With typical, normal class A combustibles the fire can double in size in as little as 60 seconds. That's not an exaggeration. Here is an actual demonstration of what I am describing. In this video from spark to flashover is 3 minutes. From room temperature to over 1000 degrees in 3 minutes. A flashover will burn or kill anything or anyone virtually instantly. Even firefighters in full PPE. Sadly it has.

Now ask yourself do you think that any of these drones could make it to a fire faster than 3 minutes or have enough suppression do anything meaningful against an +1000 degree fire? Well I don't.

Also the weather. We have to respond no matter what. There are extremely few instances where FDs stop operating. There is no such thing as a rain delay. It doesn't matter if there is 6 feet of snow and it's -50 degrees. Or the wind gusting. Or when it's 100 degrees and we start passing out. When I did my window bailout training I did it during a snow storm. The instructor blindfolded me and then ordered me to escape out of a five story window in a snow storm. This not me bragging. Every firefighter has a story like this. It wasn't even that dangerous to tell you the truth. The point is how effective do you think these drones will be in bad weather? A time when our services are most requested.

If you would like to see a real fire suppression drone in action please allow me to introduce you to Paris FD's "Colossus" This is the real deal and gets used all the time. And as you can see it's a firefighting tank. Because that's what it takes to make it to the seat of a structure fire sometimes.

By the way quick shoutout to Paris Fire Brigade. They're excellent firefighters. They're actually a department of the French Army and were formed by order of Emperor Napoleon in 1810. All of their firefighters are technically sappers. Their motto is "Sauver ou périr" or in English "Save or Die"