MD Dept. Gets County's First Drone

Nov. 27—CORRIGANVILLE, Md. — Allegany County first responders have a new eye in the sky.

Drone 5, the Corriganville Volunteer Fire Company's new $18,000 drone, offers emergency personnel versatility in their life-saving mission and includes state-of-the-art features like thermal imaging, a 200X zoom lens, a powerful spotlight and a loudspeaker to broadcast messages.

Ryan Brenneman, Corriganville's assistant chief, and EMT Alex Looker gave a recent presentation on the drone at the fire station.

"This drone is for public safety purposes," Brenneman said. "We can put it up and it can provide an incident commander with views and details they've never had before. It's a powerful tool for saving lives."

The Matrice M30T drone is an aerial intelligence gathering unit made by DJI Technology Co. Purchased in the spring, the drone is the only unit of its caliber in Allegany County and the region.

The fire department purchased the drone through grants from CSX Transportation, the County United Way and contributions from local businesses.

"The businesses didn't want the credit, they just wanted to help," Brenneman said.

Looker said the drone can be used for a variety of applications, including missing person searches, fast water and flood rescue operations, hazardous materials incidents, forest and brush fires, structure fires and police operations.

"I think it's huge," Looker said. "This gives us very good aerial perspective and better situational awareness, not just on house fires, but floods and anything you could think of. It gives us a picture of what we're dealing with. It offers more information than you would normally have."

The all-weather unit can be used to pinpoint the coordinates of objects up to 1,200 meters away.

"Like with a lost person in a wooded area, if we see them on the camera we can determine the exact latitude and longitude of where to go," Brenneman said. "We can send important information to a lost person to let them know we are coming with the speaker."

Brenneman said they used consumer drones in the past and they were helpful, but the data collected by Drone 5 offers a whole new level of information.

"We are in a big outdoor recreation area and we encourage people to come into our region to enjoy those activities," he said. "Drone 5 helps us to prepare for helping people when emergencies arise and this is a tool that will do that."

Three people are trained to use the drone and two are in training now, according to Brenneman.

"We can respond now. We've used it nine times since September, but Jan. 1 is the official roll out," he said. "Our pilots will be FAA certified. It's an online training program and they will go to Hagerstown to take their test and get their FAA license, so we want to get more trained up.

"The big thing is the technology. As we look to recruit new individuals into the fire service, that technology can help people actively involved in serving the community. Young people are comfortable with technology. Hopefully we can attract them with this."

The first responders hope to obtain an SUV dedicated to carrying the equipment. "We can have it in the vehicle and ready to go in a moment's notice," Brenneman said.

Brenneman detailed some of the new ways it can help emergency personnel.

"The thermal imaging allows us to see the hot spots during fires. It identifies the heat, flames and smoldering areas, where it's still hot and where it's under control or not impacted.

"On a structure fire, are (firefighters) able to see fire progress through a building as well? If there's an unsafe condition on the roof? With unit you can see if the water is actually hitting the hot spots and direct the crews to redirect their water source as needed.

"The pictures captured by the drone can determine whether to send firefighters into a burning building."

"It gives us very picture of what we're dealing with and at the end of the day, we want everyone to make it home safely," Looker said.

Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951.

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