The Future of Firefighting begins with Drones
Technology you might have in your home right now is keeping local firefighters safe. Polk County Fire Rescue started its drone program with one drone and one drone pilot back in September. In November, they were key to battling the Lasso Lane mulch and wood pellet fires. “The thing with the mulch pile is, you can’t always see where the heat is, where the fire is, it’s deep down inside that pile. So the FLIR camera on the drone helped us locate where the hot spots were because it can see through the mulch and the piles,” Chris Jonckheer with Polk County Fire Rescue explained.