California county secures autonomous firefighting drones with 500-gallon foam payloads to tackle wildfires at night
A fleet of five autonomous drones is set to help California firefighters tackle wildfires before they spiral out of control.
Five autonomous drones. The fleet will be operated by San Bernardino County Fire Protection District.
500 gallons of foam. The five-drone team can deliver more than 500 gallons of finished firefighting foam.
24/7 operations. Onboard sensors allow the drones to operate at night and reach difficult terrain.
Wildfires can spread incredibly quickly, leaving firefighters with a race against time to stop small blazes from becoming major disasters.
Now, one California county is turning to autonomous firefighting drones in a bid to get ahead of the flames.
The new fleet can be controlled by a single operator and deliver more than 500 gallons of firefighting foam across a target area.
Even more impressively, the drones are designed to operate around the clock, including during nighttime emergencies.
California is bringing in a five-drone firefighting team
The San Bernardino County Fire Protection District has secured a fleet of five futuristic autonomous firefighting drones from Seneca Systems, alongside a mobile operations base and specialist autonomy software.
The system is designed to help firefighters respond to newly detected wildfires as quickly as possible, potentially stopping them before they have the chance to spread.
The five-drone team can reportedly deliver more than 500 gallons of firefighting foam to a target area.
Rather than requiring five separate pilots, the technology allows a single operator to supervise the entire drone fleet, giving emergency crews another tool to work with when responding to dangerous situations.
San Bernardino County Fire Protection District Chief Dan Munsey has set an ambitious target of stopping 90 percent of fires before they grow beyond 10 square feet.
He said the department had been working with Seneca for more than a year to develop a system that meets its needs.
The drones can reach fires in difficult terrain at night
One of the biggest advantages of the autonomous firefighting drones is their ability to operate in places that can be difficult for traditional emergency crews to access.
Their onboard sensor systems are designed to let them operate 24 hours a day, meaning they can respond to fires even after the sun goes down.
The fleet is also designed to reach newly detected fires in under 10 minutes, potentially giving firefighters a valuable head start before a blaze becomes harder to contain.
This could be particularly useful in a county as large as San Bernardino, which is the largest county in the US by land area.
Its size and exposure to wildfires mean emergency services need ways to cover huge areas quickly, particularly when fires break out in remote locations.
The autonomous firefighting fleet is expected to arrive before 2027
The new drones are expected to enter service ahead of the 2027 wildfire season.
If the system performs as intended, it could help firefighters tackle smaller fires before they develop into major emergencies, while also reducing the risks faced by crews on the ground.
Having one operator supervise multiple aircraft could also free up other firefighters to deal with separate incidents.
Autonomous drones are increasingly being explored for emergency response across the US, with the technology offering a way to get eyes and equipment to dangerous locations without immediately putting people in harm’s way.
For California, where wildfires remain a major concern, the five-drone team could become an important addition to the fight against the flames.
All without putting any further human lives at risk.