NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 43
TO P A N D B OT TO M L E F T, V I R G I N I A D E PA R T M E N T O F E M E R G E N CY M A N AG E M E N T.
BOTTOM RIGHT, CHRIS WILKINSON, AUSTIN FIRE DEPARTMENT
TRAINING GROUNDS
More safety agencies across the country are getting
serious about launching UAS programs. Top and bottom
left, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management
co-hosted a three-day conference in March to demonstrate
UAS capabilities to numerous public safety agencies.
Bottom right, members of the Austin (Texas) Fire Robotics
Emergency Deployment team conduct flight training.
Until recently, the majority of departments that have
explored developing UAS programs quickly thought better of
it. Many were stymied by a mountain of unanswered questions or overwhelmed by the Federal Aviation Administration's
(FAA) regulations, according to committee members I spoke
to. Many of those departments that chose to remain blissfully
unaware of the FAA rules moved forward only to find that
their new hobby drones with limited battery life were about as
much use on a fire scene as a Fisher-Price® fire truck.
Within the last year, however, the dam holding back
widespread UAS adoption has sprung significant leaks
and appears poised to give out. FAA regulations have been
streamlined and simplified, allowing almost any eager
department to obtain a legal certificate to fly with minimal
investment. Meanwhile, the cost of a reliable UAS suitable
for public-safety operations has plummeted to $1,000 or
less, even as technology and functionality have improved. As
a result, public safety leaders across the country now see a
realistic path to an aerial robotics program, and hundreds of
agencies, from fire departments to police to emergency medical services, are pushing forward to launch one.
Charles Werner, the chair of the NFPA 2400 technical
committee and a senior advisor at the Virginia Department
of Emergency Management, told me that, in the past year,
there has been "an exponential increase in the number of
safety agencies moving to use UAS, and the applications
are so numerous I can't even count them on two hands." As
recently as 2015 there were maybe two agencies in Virginia
even considering UAS programs, he said. Now, the Virginia
Department of Emergency Management is working with
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2017
Contents
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 1
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - Contents
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 3
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 4
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 5
NFPA Journal - July/August 2017 - 6
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