Fueled by dry conditions and strong winds, a wildfire broke out in South Africa’s Table Mountain National Park on the morning of Sunday, April 18, 2021. The winds quickly pushed the fire down the mountain and into Cape Town where it engulfed the area in thick smoke. More than 200 emergency workers rushed to help in putting out the fire with the support of 4 helicopters dumping water on the buildings below, many of which were historic landmarks. Residents in the city along with staff and students at the University of Cape Town (UTC) were evacuated. Thankfully there were no civilian injuries, though 3 firefighters did sustain burns and are expected to fully recover. Authorities believe that the fire was accidentally started by a homeless person trying to stay warm through the night.

The flames caused a great deal of damage to several structures such as the landmark Mostert’s Mill, South Africa’s oldest working windmill. Also severely damaged by the fire was UTC’s Jagger Library. Built in the 1930’s and named in honor of UTC benefactor Johan William Jagger, the library houses priceless African artifacts and manuscripts. While much of the building was destroyed, its fire detection systems were able to prevent many of the library’s prized possessions from being lost forever. Once the flames were safely contained it was time for insurance companies to step in and assess the damage to begin repair efforts.

To rapidly and efficiently collect all pertinent fire damage data, the university’s insurance company decided to utilize drone technology. Choosing the right drone provider was easy, they went with UAV Industries (UAVI), a drone company founded by UTC graduate Peter Venn. UAVI was founded in 2015. Since then, as stated on their website, “UAV Industries is the only company in Africa to have both a certified drone training school and a drone operators certificate. Allowing UAV Industries the necessary feedback between operations and training.” UAVI’s mission is to set the standard for safe drone practices throughout Africa.

UAVI offers a wide range of drone operations, all with legal and insured drones and operators. Some of the services they offer include drones for mapping and surveying, industrial inspection, security and surveillance, and live events and production. UAVI has become particularly known for its drone pilot training program. After graduating from UAVI’s flight school Anthony Salubi went on to become a drone software specialist based in Nigeria. “At UAVI, you’re trained by professionals who have both the knowledge of flying RPAS or manned aircrafts and the practical experience,” Anthony said. “You’re certainly sure of getting the adequate knowledge you need to succeed in both the aviation industry and in unmanned aviation industry.”

Though this is not the first time UAVI has been called to help in insurance claims, it is by far the most high profile operation they have undertaken. Braam Botha, Operations Executive for UAVI explained the benefit of using drones to determine the damage sustained to the Jagger Library. “Without drone technology to assist with the insurance claim process, the full size and complexity of the loss would be much more difficult, timely, and costly to measure. With the data captured by drone, we are able to create 3D models of the existing structures, convert these into CAD models used by the architects and engineers, in order to indicate which parts of the buildings can remain and what resources will be needed to rebuild or restructure – all to an extremely high level of accuracy.”

The whole process of using the drone to gather photogrammetric images of the fire damage only took 3 days to complete. To have done the job manually could have taken weeks. Besides the wasted time it would take to manually inspect the fire damage, it also puts the inspector and the building at greater risk. By getting too close to the damage, the inspector could easily cause the structure to shift. Richard von Seidel is the Chairman and Director at UAVI. He, Peter, and Braam are also all UTC alumni. For them, being able to return to their university, and help it in its time of need, is a great honor. Richard went on to say that even though it was devastating to see the damage inflicted on the UTC campus, he is confident that the drone operation UAVI is carrying out will help pave the way for the future of the drone industry in Africa.