Officials say that ground crews had to find the drone operators and tell them to stop flying around the fire before aircraft were able to continue attempts to control the blaze. In all, the incident delayed efforts by roughly 26 minutes — valuable time as wildfires can quickly grow out of control.

    According to Battalion Chief Marc Peebles of the San Bernadino Fire Department, the delay "definitely contributed" to the fire hopping the freeway. He told the local Los Angeles NBC affiliate that some of the drones gave chase to firefighting aircraft.



j4d3:

The situation when laws and community standards haven't yet developed around new technology and people ruin it for everyone through recklessness always interests me.


posted 3203 days ago