WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Firefighters with the city of Warren are training on 11 new drones.
The department became the first in the county to deploy the new drone technology after the nearly $80,000 investment was green-lit by the mayor and city council.
"Our biggest concern is always for resident and employee safety. The use of drone technology allows dangerous areas to be accessed quickly when seconds matter in saving lives and property while allowing our firefighting crews to remain at a safer distance," said Councilwoman Mindy Moore.
The department says they received the drones last week and have already been able to put them to work responding to a chemical spill along Bear Creek on Feb. 8.
Fire officials say because of the drones, they were able to cut the amount of time it took to trace the possible origin of the spill by two hours. Investigators say they believe the spill originated from an unoccupied industrial facility.
"This one is made for more being at a distance. This is made for being close up and personal. This we can use for many, many things," said Warren Fire Chief Safety Officer Jeff Middleton as he showcased the drones.
The department started using drones in 2022 on non-emergency and emergency scenes. Middleton says it gives crews an eagle-eye view of the scene allowing them vantage points they may not otherwise have.
With the new upgraded drones, the team will also be able to send the data collected from overhead directly to phones, desktops, and other devices of firefighters at different locations. Middleton says they can also drop pins at locations that they fly over so they can later revisit.
"In the past, we’d say okay Bill I need you to suit up, mask up, tank up, take a radio and I need you to walk in there. We don’t know what it is. The rail cars are turned over. Now I don’t have to do that. I can just fly in see what it is, identify our placard, and come up with a plan of attack," Middleton explained.
Middleton says this kind of advance can mean saving a firefighter's life.
"When we bring these out, it’s for a scene that’s large scale that we think we’re going to be there for a while where we need to gather data and we’re going to need that overhead for an extended period of time," said Middleton. "In our future, we were talking about the other day, you’re going to see a drone float above the scene for everything we go on, automatically. As they deploy fire engines and ambulances, we’re going to have an eye in the sky."
