PEORIA, Ill. – Imagine the possibilities.
The Peoria Fire Department did just that, in acquiring its first drone.
“It’s got pretty good zoom capabilities. It’s got thermal capabilities. You can see at night with it. It’s got a laser in it – tell you how far away things are,” Mike Gawelek, Peoria firefighter and drone enthusiast, said. “We’ve got a spotlight on it, too. There’s all kinds of benefits to it.”
Gawelek, who’s been flying his own drone for ten years, was hesitant to encourage the department to get one, which was on display for the media Friday. He says the BioUrja disaster – where his and another borrowed drone – helped the department.
The drone could be used in any fire situation.
Peoria Fire crews are able to use thermal imaging technology via the use of a drone to help identify hot spots when fighting a fire. (Will Stevenson/1470 & 100.3 WMBD)
“With thermal imaging capabilities on the camera, any bigger fire – warehouse fire or multiple-story building – we can see with the thermal imaging…that helps our guys out a lot (finding) where the hot spots are,” said Gawelek.
Much like with any technology these days, it might be hard to keep up with upgrades.
“With this one we got, we’re trying to stay ahead of the technology curve,” said Gawelek. “But, you know how that works…every year, something better goes out. Hopefully, this will last us a few years.”
The drone has the capability of flying over a river, if a rescue needs to be made there, or anywhere else. It has a speaker on it, so if they spot a missing person, that person can be communicated with.
They do have flying times of around a half hour before batteries need to be changed, but officials say that can provide for a lot of work. Gawelek says she would like to see the department have a smaller drone at some point, so that such a large apparatus doesn’t need to be used in a smaller-sized fire.
The addition of the drone also allowed for the rebirth of an RV-sized vehicle that will serve as an emergency command center that can also be used in search-and-rescue situations, or other large-scale disasters.
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