Drones for prescribed fires are revolutionising firefighting in response to global disasters caused by forest fires.

Firefighters work tirelessly and stoically. However, traditional methods of fighting forest fires are rapidly being overtaken by our worsening climate.

For example, in the summer of 2021, wildfires killed dozens of people in Greece and entire islands had to be evacuated. 2020, one Californian fire was so fierce that it reduced more than a million acres of land to ashes. It received the ominous title of the world’s first ever ‘gigafire’. That same summer, almost 50 million acres of land went up in smoke in Australia. The most catastrophic natural disaster in the country’s history.

To keep up with the size and frequency of wildfires, firefighters and forestry departments need every advantage they can get. A proactive, preventive approach using drones is one way to help turn the tide against these wildfires.

Fighting fire with fire

The most important tool in this fight is Drone Amplified’s IGNIS system. It is a sophisticated system for conducting prescribed fires that is mounted on the DJI M600. A prescribed fire is the process of deliberately starting controlled fires under precise and predicted weather conditions. Its purpose is to stop the spread of forest fires or prevent them from happening in the first place by reducing the accumulation of debris, dead wood, or fuel. In addition, prescribed fire is used worldwide as a tool for ecological restoration and maintenance of forests, shrubs, and grasslands.

To do this, the IGNIS system allows trained pilots to remotely drop individual ping-pong ball-sized charges of detonators at key locations. Before being released, the ignition pellets – or ‘dragon eggs’ – are injected with ethylene glycol, igniting them 30 to 40 seconds after landing. Fully loaded, IGNIS weighs 4 kg, which means it must be mounted on a heavy drone like the M600. This drone therefore has a battery life of 20 to 30 minutes. The simple yet elegant IGNIS system is supported by the IGNIS app. It allows firefighters to set a series of waypoints for automated flights. This gives them more control over how and where to fire.

IGNIS put to the test

One organisation taking the lead with IGNIS is the US-based The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a non-profit conservation organisation that is no stranger to drone technology. The Virginia Chapter of TNC monitors vast stretches of land, from coastal areas and island chains to rugged forests, for which they already deploy a large drone fleet. Currently, they have a total of five pilots commanding a fleet of six, mostly smaller, drones such as Mavics and Phantoms.

In general, the missions are aimed at monitoring, for example, coastal habitats and bird populations. But they also use drones for forest inventory, to measure the size and volume of forest areas (or even individual trees) accurately and efficiently and thus deduce how much carbon is being sequestered.

As amazing as this is, the gem is the M600-mounted IGNIS, which has already seen tremendous success as an alternative to traditional methods for prescribed fires.

How drones help reduce risk for firefighters and increase productivity

Traditionally, prescribed fires have been carried out by ground teams using hand-held drones or by expensive helicopter missions. However, both methods pose dangers to the firefighters involved. Prescribed fires by hand not only expose droplet burners to the forest fires they are trying to fight, but also to dangerous smoke inhalation. And don’t forget the other hazards associated with this field work: bee stings, exposure to poison ivy, sprained ankles, heat exhaustion and many more.

Covering many acres of pristine land on foot is physically exhausting and affects judgment and the ability to make split-second decisions under pressure. Something that only increases the danger. At the same time, prescribed fires on foot are only applicable to relatively small areas of land, limiting their usefulness.

For the larger prescribed fires, which cover several thousand acres, the TNC conducts helicopter missions. Useful as these are, they have a few serious drawbacks. First, they are expensive. For a typical fire of 1,000 to 3,000 acres, a helicopter flight usually costs around $ 5,000 to $ 7,000 per day. This means that such flights can only be undertaken sparingly. This again limits their effectiveness. For emergency type III Call-When-Needed helicopter services, the cost can be as high as $ 14,000 to $ 24,000 per day.

More importantly, helicopter flights expose firefighters to additional avoidable risks. According to the CDC, more than 25% of all firefighter fatalities recorded in the US from 2000-2013 were aviation related. And from 2007-2016, aircraft accidents were the third leading cause of wildfire fatalities, after heart attacks and car accidents. Although only a small portion of firefighting takes place from the air, firefighters are exposed to additional risks when their boots leave the ground.

The IGNIS drone system for forest firefighting is enormously useful. Not only are firefighters able to carry out missions from relative safety, but missions are also significantly less expensive.

Typically, the IGNIS is used for missions that cover between 500 and 100 acres, which is the optimal range for the M600 and coincided with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restrictions and landing zone requirements. Drones for forest fires are thus crucial to fill in the large space between very small fires that can still be handled by hand and huge areas that still require the use of helicopters.

A technology that changes the game

Since the TNC’s first drone mission, the IGNIS has been hailed as a ‘game changer’ and has quickly become a crucial tool. A key factor in this success has been the speed with which the TNC has been able to master and deploy the IGNIS wildfire drones.

Although rigorous training is required to operate the IGNIS safely and obtain the necessary licence, this entire process – from the point of purchase to legal certification – can take less than six months. After purchasing their first drone in November 2020, the TNC team was fully licensed and trained by the following February and able to begin missions in March.

And the results have been remarkable: the IGNIS has burned more than 7,000 acres in its first six months of use.

“It’s the biggest change in the way we operate that I’ve seen in 26 years”, said Sam Lindblom, director of Land Management and Fire Program Manager Virginia. “I wish I had six more of these units to meet all the requests for fires.”

The future of drones for forest fires

As the effects of climate change become more apparent, the likelihood of larger and more frequent wildfires and ‘gigafires’ is unfortunately increasing. The use of innovative technical solutions, such as the combination of IGNIS and the Matrice 600 Pro, is becoming increasingly important to counter this threat.

In the United States, however, the use of drones to prevent wildfires is artificially limited. The US Department of the Interior (DOI), which controls 20% of the land in America, has grounded its drone fleet in 2020 for fear of drone parts made in China – even though DJI has built a special “Government Edition” product for DOI that has been validated by the Department of Homeland Security.

However, this policy based on a drone’s country of origin can do harm by blocking Americans’ access to useful technology and limiting public safety missions. For example, the ability of aircraft to carry thermal imaging cameras has been used by firefighting units in cities to detect hot spots in burning buildings, reducing danger to firefighters, and increasing operational efficiency. Similarly, thermal drones are being used to make solar farms much more cost-effective, reducing the cost of renewable energy and making solar farms possible on a much large scale than ever before.

When it comes to protecting America from wildfires, TNC has demonstrated how the DJI M600 with Drone Amplified’s IGNIS system can safely and reliably help reduce the risk of uncontrolled fires while keeping the firefighting team safer. However, damaging policies that ground this tool pose a different kind of risk to forest fires – and technology alone will not be enough to mitigate it.