To combat wildfires in the US, firefighters have increased their use of a piece of technology that can access areas of danger where helicopters and other aircraft can’t: drones.

During what has been a severe wildfire season that has caused death and destruction in much of the west of the US, it was in August 2020 that long-time firefighters Joe Suarez and Simon Weibel joined forces to combat a wildfire on the Point Reyes National Seashore in California by using this innovation.

According to an article on National Geographic, Suarez and Weibel helped to alleviate that particular blaze by unleashing 450 incendiary spherical devices contained within the drone itself. This is a more technical way of setting what is known as a backfire, which is a method that firefighters use where separate fires are set to disrupt an oncoming fire. 

Each of the devices, which are called Dragon Eggs, are the size of a ping-pong ball. The Dragon Eggs contain potassium permanganate and were injected with anti-freeze prior to release. The two chemicals then ignited once on the ground, enabling a backfire and thus using any potential fuel sources for oncoming and advancing wildfire.

Whilst Suarez has labelled the drones in this particular instance as ‘a good safety tool for getting in where it was too thick or too steep for the firefighters’, he is already looking ahead as to what additional technology he would like to see next.

“When I was in the Navy we had something where the whole fleet could see where everyone was and what they were doing, said Suarez.

“It’d be nice to have a (ground-based) system where we know where we all are and communicate better with live video to help us with our decision-making and our situational awareness.”