Columbia Fire Department envisions greater drone use by first responders
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Springfield man Carl Simon is in the Boone County Jail on Monday after he was accused of fleeing from Boone County sheriffs leading to a fatal car crash on Dec. 7 that left a 32-year-old passenger in the vehicle dead.
Following the crash, Simon allegedly ran away from deputies and was later arrested Monday in the block of I-70 Drive SE in Columbia according to a press release from the Boone County Sheriff's Office.
On Dec. 7, an ABC 17 News reporter saw law enforcement a drone being used to look for Simon. More recently on Monday, a drone was used to find a missing Hallsville man.
According to the Columbia Fire Department, drones have become a useful item in a first responder's toolkit, giving officials an extra pair of eyes and allowing them to stay a safe distance away from a scene.
"We'll get out on the streets or out in the parks or out in the wilderness, wherever it may be, day or night, we can get this drone up and help try to locate people with a thermal capabilities at night," CFD Capt. Wayne Cummins said.
CFD has been using drone since 2020 to help manage fires and search for missing people.
The department has one drone that rides along with the day's shift leader at all times with six drone operators on call across Columbia's fire stations. The CFD's drone is battery-powered with spare batteries kept in a charging case for quick swaps so the drone can fly for hours.
"As soon as we get our on scene, operations set up, we get our charging station set up and we just keep flying as long as we need to get our objectives and maintain our goals," Cummins said.
The drone is also able to be set up in at least three minutes, is equipped with a thermal camera and can fly in almost all terrain except for rain, when visibility becomes difficult.
Cummins hopes to have more firefighters certified in drone operation. The fire department typically uses the drone to observes scenes of fires, with the thermal camera helping firefighters in finding hotspots to extinguish.
"Oftentimes, we get called to incidents where we're not sure what we're dealing with, could be something we don't want to rush in on so we're going to put this drone up in the air and we're going to fly it in there," Cummins said.
Cummins added that it's common for the fire department to collaborate with local law enforcement at a scene to set up a search plan with multiple drones.
"I think there's there's a huge future for it in the fire service," Cummins said. "It helps locate faster and anything we can do to make our jobs less hazardous or help find somebody quickly, that's going to help us, that's going to help the public."
