As years pass by, man discovers various innovations that can help support human life in times of need or diminish their existence. Drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), are highly recognized and notable innovations among people and professionals of various industries. They have been used in various fields, including agriculture, and presented numerous benefits due to the technology embodied in them.
But, the predominant field that draws all of our attention today is the emergency services. Thus, this post will cover the key advantages drones offer for emergency services. From enhancing situational awareness to facilitating the delivery of vital supplies in no-go zone areas for humans, we hope to help you understand why drones are a must-have tool in the field of emergency services.
1. Delivering Emergency Supplies
One amazing benefit of drones for emergency services is delivering emergency supplies during disastrous events. Mostly, when natural disasters like earthquakes occur in an area, the likelihood of any means of transport being operational reduces to zero. Also, all the communication lines become disabled, and it is at this time that people tend to need them the most. Thus, it becomes even harder for emergency services to communicate and send any urgent supplies to those stuck in the affected areas.
However, this will hardly be the case for emergency services if they implement the use of drone technology in these circumstances. The expertise of well-trained emergency service personnel can easily direct the drones into areas perceived as dangerous for human entry, thereby delivering essential supplies like food, blankets, or vital medical supplies to those stuck.
This way, all the emergency services personnel would be saved from potential harm while the victims get assured access to necessities faster as they wait for rescue efforts.
Moreover, drones can be fitted with communication antennas, which can help reactivate communication links between inaccessible victims and emergency services. This will, in turn, allow the emergency services to provide the hard-to-access victims with further guidance on what and what not to do at such times.
2. Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery is another key benefit that drones bring to the table for emergency services. As you may know, disaster recovery is the responsibility of emergency services teams, and it encompasses all the immediate practices that need to be implemented after a disaster has occurred. It involves more than re-establishing the vital infrastructure that was destroyed during the disaster. Rather, it extends to analyzing how to mitigate the effects in case a similar event happens in the future.
Bringing in drone technology can help emergency services accomplish this role safely, securely, and faster. They can send drones to safely inspect affected buildings, which may be fragile as a result of the disasters. Thus, measurements can be taken without anyone having to set foot on the site. This way, drones would have helped with promoting secure disaster recovery efforts.
3. Search and Rescue Operations
Drones help emergency services conduct smooth and faster search and rescue missions during or after a disaster. It is vital for these missions to be launched right away to maximize the chances of survival for those who went missing during the disaster, and drones are one of the most effective tools that can help ensure this.
Drones for emergency services are fitted with thermal imagers, high-quality cameras, and spotlights to help faster locate missing people, especially in challenging conditions like darkness. The high-quality cameras also provide faster and cheaper aerial view of the situation on the ground, thereby allowing emergency teams to have a large scan of the area in a shorter time. This, in turn, increases the possibility of finding missing persons by a higher percentage, all at a cost-effective price compared to using helicopters.
4. Promoting Situational Awareness
Another outstanding benefit of drones for emergency services is that they help elevate situational awareness. Drones are increasingly being used to help emergency services with situational awareness – whether that’s evaluating the level and impact of a disaster, managing traffic flow after a road accident, or monitoring an ongoing fire emergency.
Aerial images from drones usually help portray a picture of the emergency, during or after the event, so that the true scale and impact can be examined. These aerial images are then utilized jointly with existing maps so that street and building names can cover the aerial images to create a picture of the area and help with any reconstruction or additional resources that may be needed.
5. Fire Detection and Extinguishing
Drones are advantageous in detecting and extinguishing fires for emergency services. They are seen as a god-sent product that helps deal with fires without jeopardizing the safety of firefighters. This is especially true with the recent rise in reported cases of fire, be it home or wildfires.
As you may know, in the past, firefighting teams encountered aspects like road traffic, which could greatly delay their arrival time at a fire site. They were also exposed to a host of dangers which affected their health. However, drone technology has managed to do away with all these challenges.
There is no longer a need to send firefighters as drones can be flown in while carrying all the necessary fire extinguishing chemicals. Also, in cases of wildfires, drones can gather information in the form of pictures for relevant emergency services teams to use in determining their next course of action.
Conclusion
Emergency services play a key role in today’s unpredictable world. However, for them to effectively and efficiently accomplish their tasks, they sure do need the help of emergency drones. Emergency drones act as an innovative solution that presents numerous benefits to them, including delivering emergency supplies in times of disaster, helping with disaster recovery operations, and elevating situational awareness. All these advantages can go a long way in times of disastrous events; thus, relevant bodies must authorize and fund the use of drones for emergency services.