DRONE TEAM — Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman are piloting a new drone program with Haywood County Emergency Services that can provide situational awareness from the air to aid responders on the ground.
GO DRONE GO — A new drone equipped with four cameras, including thermal imaging, will aid Haywood County Emergency Services with rescue operations and emergency response. Pictured are Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman.
GO DRONE GO — A new drone equipped with four cameras, including thermal imaging, will aid Haywood County Emergency Services with rescue operations and emergency response.
DRONE TEAM — Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman are piloting a new drone program with Haywood County Emergency Services that can provide situational awareness from the air to aid responders on the ground.
DRONE TEAM — Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman are piloting a new drone program with Haywood County Emergency Services that can provide situational awareness from the air to aid responders on the ground.
SURE AND STEADY — Allison Richmond takes the new Haywood County Emergency Services drone for a training spin alongside Benny Pullman. The $15,000 piece of equipment will aid ground crews when responding to major crisises like floods and landslides, as well as damage assessment and situational awareness during emergency ops.
DRONE TEAM — Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman are piloting a new drone program with Haywood County Emergency Services that can provide situational awareness from the air to aid responders on the ground.
GO DRONE GO — A new drone equipped with four cameras, including thermal imaging, will aid Haywood County Emergency Services with rescue operations and emergency response. Pictured are Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman.
GO DRONE GO — A new drone equipped with four cameras, including thermal imaging, will aid Haywood County Emergency Services with rescue operations and emergency response.
DRONE TEAM — Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman are piloting a new drone program with Haywood County Emergency Services that can provide situational awareness from the air to aid responders on the ground.
DRONE TEAM — Allison Richmond and Benny Pullman are piloting a new drone program with Haywood County Emergency Services that can provide situational awareness from the air to aid responders on the ground.
SURE AND STEADY — Allison Richmond takes the new Haywood County Emergency Services drone for a training spin alongside Benny Pullman. The $15,000 piece of equipment will aid ground crews when responding to major crisises like floods and landslides, as well as damage assessment and situational awareness during emergency ops.
With the dexterity of a trapeze acrobat but her feet firmly on the ground, Allison Richmond maneuvered an airborne drone through a series of practice exercises, making a final 360-pivot before bringing it in for a well-executed landing on the flight pad.
“We are learning the ropes on this particular model and getting ready to put it in the field,” Richmond said over the whir of drone propellers.
The drone is the newest apparatus in the tool box of Haywood County Emergency Services. The agency’s foray into cutting-edge drone technology will help improve response to a variety of crisis — from floods and forest fires to search and rescue operations.
“It has everything on our wishlist and will be used in lifesaving missions, as well as for emergency management tasks such as mapping and damage assessment,” Haywood County Emergency Manager Zack Koonce said. “We see this new tool as a huge benefit, not only to our department but to the county and to its citizens.”
The drone would have proved invaluable during the floods that struck Cruso last August — when high water, washed-out bridges and massive debris fields rendered areas inaccessible during the early rescue stages.
“We could use it for damage assessment and for situational awareness to get a look at what’s going on,” said Richmond.
The thermal imaging capabilities could also be used to scout for victims. The drone is weather-proof, capable of withstanding rain, dust, dirt and a wide range of temperatures.
“The ability to fly in bad weather is something not all drones can do,” Richmond said. “We can get up even while it’s still raining to start looking for people.”
The $15,000 drone is equipped with four cameras: a wide-angle, first-person, zoom and thermal imaging lenses.
“Those tools will really help us when we are out in the field saving lives,” Richmond said.
The thermal-imaging technology can detect body heat when looking for lost hikers, for example. It doesn’t work as well through thick tree canopies during summer, but could prove invaluable during winter months.
“The time frame we have to bring somebody back safely changes in the winter. It’s more critical to find somebody in a hurry,” Richmond said.
The drone can also be mounted with a speaker allowing for real-time communication with responders on the ground.
“Say we had a hiker stick on a ledge who couldn’t get up or down. We could fly up to them and speak to them through the speaker system and give them some comfort and direction and let them know that help is coming,” Richmond said.
It can also be outfitted with a spotlight for reconnaissance during night operations. Meanwhile, the zoom lens has a magnification power of 200x.
Richmond stressed the drone is purely intended for emergency operations.
“It’s not there to spy on people or violate their privacy rights. We are only going to fly as needed,” Richmond said.
The powerful battery pack has a whopper of a flight time at 40 minutes.
“Once I land it, I can take one battery out, put a fresh one in and go right back out,” Richmond said.
The forest fire that ripped across Sheepback Mountain in Maggie Valley this spring is another example of the drone’s potential applications. A designated air boss is in charge of directing choppers and planes dropping water, but before air support got to the scene, the drone could scout the fire’s trajectory.
“We could go up and look for the fire line to inform firefighters exactly what’s going on and give them a better idea where to start working,” Richmond said.
Aside from large-scale emergencies like floods, forest fires and landslides, the drone would be a handy tool for run-of-the-mill structure fires as well.
“You can get up above the roof to see where the most intense heat is and provide that situational awareness,” Richmond said.
Until now, emergency services relied on volunteer drone pilots willing to assist in operations with their own personal drones.
“Having our own drone gives us the ability to deploy it much faster. We can get started right away. As soon as we get to a scene, we can be in the air within a couple minutes,” said Richmond.
While Richmond’s official title is public information officer for emergency services, she’s also a certified drone pilot — making her a natural fit to spearhead the new drone program for the agency.
Along with Richmond, emergency services currently has one other certified drone pilot on staff, and two more in the process of completing their training. Among them is Benny Pullman, who spent 30 years as a flight paramedic with MAMMA, Mission Health’s medical helicopter, and is looking forward to flying again, albeit without leaving the ground.
The drone will also be available to deploy for other departments and agencies through mutual aid agreements.
In the past, the price tag of an in-house drone with high-tech capabilities was out of reach. The department had been exploring a $30,000 model, when a newer model with all the necessary bells-and-whistles came on the market in March for half the cost.
“As technology improves and prices come down, we anticipate tools like drone-mounted thermal cameras will be essential to emergency response,” said Koonce.
For now, however, Haywood County is one of the first emergency services agencies in the region to launch its own in-house drone program.
“It is a high end tool we are happy to have, but it’s a little fun, too,” Richmond said.
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