Much like California in the United States of America, Australia goes through an annual wild fire season.  Hot, arid, windy weather leads to the rapid spread of these wildfires.  Each year, firefighters in regions prone to these conditions gear up in the summer months in preparation for the fires.  This year, Australia is facing the worst fire season they have seen in decades.  Extreme heat coupled with a severe drought and strong winds have left the country in a state of emergency as small and massive wildfires have been raging since October.  All six of Australia’s states have been effected by these devastating fires, but none nearly as much as New South Wales (NSW).  As of yet, these fires have claimed the lives of 28 people, 3,000 homes, and 17.9 million acres throughout the nation.  In NSW 1,588 homes have been destroyed along with 12.1million acres of land.  Over half a billion animals that live in NSW have been affected as well.  Ecologists from the University of Sydney estimate that millions of animals have already died and that a third of the koala population in NSW has already been wiped out along with a third of the koala’s natural habitat.

The nature of wildfires makes them wholly unpredictable.  Smoldering brush and dry wood can often be impossible to spot, and as the wind shifts a fire can soon erupt.  Firefighters, the military, and volunteers have been working tirelessly to combat the ongoing fires and prevent new ones.  NSW has at least 2,000 fire and emergency workers on the ground now, with more on the way coming from all around the world to help.  Firefighters start controlled fires to help eliminate brush with the potential to turn into an unpredictable wildfire.  Residents and emergency workers alike keep a constant stream of water on hand to control any smoldering patches.  Helicopters are being used to dump water bombs and fire retardants over the largest and most dangerous flames.  But several times now these critical helicopter missions have been grounded due to civilians flying drones over the fires.

The flames and resulting smoke and ash make it almost impossible for people to see.  Visibility for those in sanctioned helicopters is extremely limited.  If someone is flying a drone within the vicinity of where a helicopter is trying to put out a fire, a greater disaster can occur.  The pilots most likely will not be able to see the drone, and it is very possible that the drone operator could loose visual contact with the drone.  This could lead to a devastating midair crash.  In a time like this when every second counts, it is unfortunate that Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority had to release a statement that reads: “A current combined flight information region (FIR) NOTAM warns of ‘unnotified intense aviation activity associated with firefighting operations,’ and requests pilots of manned aircraft to remain 5 nm clear of a bushfire horizontally and more than 3000 ft AGL. Unmanned aircraft should only be flown 5 nm horizontally away from a fire and no higher than 120 m or 400 ft AGL.”

NSW RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers pointed out that the situation is chaotic already with “a lot of smoke, flames, a lot of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft flying in and out.  If there are drones flying in the area that we don’t exactly know where they are or how many, then potentially the aircraft would have to put down.”  These statements are mostly for amateur drone operators being curious and not realizing the danger they are in and placing others in.  However, not all drone operators are causing trouble.  As drones can be very useful tools for emergency personnel, some companies are stepping up to offer assistance.

Propeller Aero was founded by Rory San Miguel and Francis Vierboom in 2014.  They are a drone company based in NSW that provides drone surveying and mapping to more than 2,000 companies in the fields of waste management, construction, mining, and agriculture.  A few weeks ago Propeller Aero posted on Twitter, “We are offering our photogrammetry processing services at no cost if you need to survey a bushfire effected area in Australia.”  Then earlier this week they sent out another tweet stating “We are extending our offer to cover the entire country. If you’re located anywhere in Australia and need to survey a bushfire affected area we’d like to provide our photogrammetry processing services to you at no cost.”

Another company based out of Denmark, Robotto, has begun to increase their efforts with the Autonomous Wildfire Recognition & Analytics Drone system (AWRA) they have created.  AWRA is “a robotic system for autonomous data gathering of wildfires. It will provide firefighters with an eye in the sky that allows for fast processing of imagery and telemetry data. Finally outputting the fire’s size, location, direction and intensity to the palm of their hand.”  The drone will be able to autonomously fly over an effected area using an  algorithm to identify and classify fires below.  It will then send a series of exact GPS coordinates to firefighters to orchestrate an expert plan of attack.  Robotto is developing AWRA in collaboration with the Danish Emergency Management Agency and hopes to have an actionable model ready shortly.

Once these fires are under control Australia will be facing a long road to recovery.  At that time drones could potentially be even more useful.  Drones could be used to survey the exact damages left behind to help rebuild everything from homes to infrastructure.  Insurance companies could heavily rely on drones to take assessments rapidly so as to move this slow process along.  Research groups in Australia have used drones in the past to help monitor wildlife.  These drones can once again be used to help wildlife experts relocate and monitor displaced creatures.  Drones can also help to efficiently replant the vast forests that have been decimated by fires, restoring wildlife habitats and an ecological balance.

As Australia is reaching the peak of it’s summer months it seems these fires will likely continue to spread for some time.  Officials would like to remind the public to be vigilant in reporting any fires.  They also want to remind civilians to keep the airspace free of drones so that emergency workers can do their jobs without worry about their already dangerous jobs being further impeded.  Hopefully life will soon go back to normal for Australia, and with help from approved drones that process could be sped up.

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