A heat sensing fire department drone found a missing woman in Shelby who was lost and disoriented. Rose Burton was found after wandering through farm fields for hours in the dark. The 47-year-old woman had a dozen rescuers looking for her before the fire department deployed its heat-sensing drone.

On Thursday, Rose left her Shelby County home and wandered into the fields close to her home. Rose and her husband, Gregory Burton, live in a rural area in Shelby County where it is easy to get lost and even harder to be found. According to Bargersville firefighter Eric Funkhouser, Rose wandered off about 2.30 am before Gregory could grab his clothes and shoes. Rose’s family told emergency responders that she has schizophrenia, which can sometimes cause disorganized and disoriented behavior.

For two hours, a K-9 officer and rescuers searched for Rose Burton unsuccessfully. That was when the Bargersville Community Fire Department was called in to assist the rescue. The Fire Department deployed a heat sensing drone that found her after about 15 minutes of searching.

Funkhouser stated that it took about twenty minutes to get the drone with the FLIR camera out to the search location—the FLIR is a brand of infrared thermal cameras that were installed on the drone. Because it was dark, the only way the search could be fruitful was by using infrared to detect heat signals.

After arriving at the location of the search, it took just five more minutes to pinpoint her exact location. With the heat sensing drone just a hundred feet above Rose, rescuers used it as a beacon to find her. The drone’s footage recorded this brief search and will be useful to emergency responders in the future. The drone found her a quarter-mile from her home and she was immediately taken to the hospital to get checked out.

Did the drone save her life?  In only 15 minutes, the pilot and drone accomplished what rescuers and K-9 dogs could not achieve as they wandered in the dark, farm fields. It was truly a fantastic and exhilarating feeling for the rescuers who were overjoyed that an unmanned aerial surveillance device (UAS) was at their disposal and was used to effectively find a missing person. The technology made a difference, stated Funkhouser.

The Bargersville firefighting department has received several phone calls from law enforcement agencies all around the state inquiring about the drone program and how the department received funding for it. Funkhouser explained that his department received a grant through the Johnson County Community Foundation, and since then, have helped other counties in their search and rescue efforts.

Also, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer, Ron Shelnutt held a UAS training class for three of its deputies. The training took place at the Lawrence Fire Department station outside Fort Benjamin. The training started off with the basics of drone flying and its usage. Afterwards, the deputies trained on flying a computer simulation system, before finally taking a real drone out to the park for real-life practice flights.

Only Indianapolis, Bargersville and Wayne Township Fire departments have drones and many hope to see more UAS in law enforcement departments across the state.

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