By Frank Lesnefsky
The Times-Tribune
SCRANTON, Pa. — The Scranton Fire Department’s newest tool is about to take flight.
The department purchased three drones — technically classified as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs — over the summer for just under $20,000, and received them about a month and a half ago, Fire Chief John Judge said. The Fire Department’s fire inspectors, a captain and its emergency management specialist are training to pilot the drones and take certification tests through the Federal Aviation Administration, he said. Judge anticipates most of them having their certification by the end of the year.
The Fire Department joins the Scranton Police Department in adding drones to its tool kit. City police received their first drone in 2016 as a donation from Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Co.
Judge envisions using drones to inspect hazardous buildings, at fires, HAZMAT incidents, Nay Aug Gorge and during floods. He pointed to the usefulness of a drone to gather intelligence during emergencies like the large brush fire this week on Montage Mountain.
“That’s really what it’s about — being able to gather some more data for us to be able to make informed decisions while we’re putting our strategies and tactics together, whether it’s an incident that we’re on or whether we’re pre-planning something,” Judge said. “The drones just give us a unique and different view of the landscape we might be working in.”
The Fire Department spent several years researching drones and talking to other departments that already use them, Judge said.
One decision was to figure out whether to get one expensive drone with “all the bells and whistles on it” or to instead buy multiple, less-expensive drones for redundancy and different applications, Judge said. The department ultimately decided to get three DJI Mavic 3T Enterprise drones.
DJI advertises its Mavic 3T drones as having both wide angle and zoom cameras, including 56x zoom, as well as a thermal imaging camera.
The thermal imaging cameras will allow firefighters to see hot spots coming through the roof during large building fires — something that’s especially useful if they are unable to safely access certain sections of a building due to damage, he said.
“This UAV is going to keep our personnel and staff, hopefully, out of harm’s way when we’re just trying to do some reconnaissance and be able to get some information to make some informed decisions while we’re developing our strategies and our tactics,” Judge said.
With city firefighters often dispatched to Nay Aug Gorge during the summer as people illegally dive into the churning waters, Judge said the drones will allow them to search the shorelines more easily rather than sending first responders over the rough terrain.
In addition to giving firefighters the ability to develop a quicker operational picture, Judge said the drones and their detailed cameras also will help city engineers and code enforcement officials to assess the aftermath of a fire by showing them areas of damaged buildings that could be otherwise inaccessible.
“Now you have a drone that’s not in harm’s way rather than putting city engineers or code enforcement officials or fire inspectors in harm’s way,” he said.
Overall, the drones will give fire officials information to make decisions rather than guessing or relying on past experience, Judge said, explaining the Fire Department’s goal is to mitigate incidents quickly in order to limit the loss of life and property.
“Anytime you’re able to do that, that’s going to affect the health and safety of our emergency responders,” he said. “Just as importantly, it’s going to affect our ability to hopefully save lives or identify people that are in peril and then mitigate that incident quicker.”
Like Judge, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti pointed to the utility of drones during emergencies, both as a way of getting eyes on a situation right away and in its aftermath. For example, if there’s a flood, the city could use the drones and the footage they record to more quickly and accurately survey damage and apply for emergency funds, she said.
“So, huge range of uses, from the very immediate life-saving uses to getting funds for the city in the case of the aftermath of emergencies,” she said. “It shows Chief Judge and Deputy Chief (Dan) Hallowich’s continued modernization of the department and forward-thinking.”
With both the police and fire departments using drones, Cognetti said it shows that Scranton is using technology to save lives and save money.
“Saving lives is always the primary goal, but making sure that we are efficient with taxpayer dollars and utilizing the latest technology within our budget is important to our administration,” she said. “You see from the investments we’ve made that our chiefs in the Fire Department and the Police Department are focused on that.”
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