Drone hobbyists many times are not thinking before they go flying —especially around disasters. Be they a bridge out, flood waters or a grassland fire. First responders routinely are using manned aircraft to respond to incidents. If an unauthorized drone is spotted in the air, all air operations come to a screeching halt.
See this story of a fire in Washington state that had firefighting aircraft grounded due to a drone being spotted in the air,
Evacuations remain in place as Williams Flats Fire grows to 40,000 acres.
Nate Weigel shared the link above.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.