ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – Roanoke County Fire and Rescue’s drone program took off in 2017.Drones can use thermal imaging to find a missing hiker or map out a wildfire. Their cameras can feed a live image of hazmat incidents.
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Lieutenant Paramedic Shaun Lacy is a drone pilot with Roanoke County Fire.
“Search and rescue was one of the original ideas that we had for it,” he said. “We discovered that, especially with foliage this time of year, it makes it very difficult to get a good view through the canopy. So, it proves useful at times, but it ended up other things were much more useful. Wildfires have been one of the primary things that we have used it for.”
They’ve also used them to pre-plan, so they can see what they’re getting into when they attack a house fire. Their swift water crews use them for rescues, and Roanoke County sent a drone to Buchanan County during Hurricane Helene…