Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service launches drone program

Fire crews in Winnipeg will soon be able to add a “groundbreaking” new tool to their toolbox.

The Fire Paramedic Service said crews will be able to start using a drone with a thermal imaging camera in June. There are 16 pilots in the service who are currently being trained to operate the unmanned aerial vehicle to ensure it is able to be deployed at any time.

Senior Academy Officer Scott Wilkinson said this new tool will give them more options.

“It allows our incident commanders to see a visual that they’ve never seen before, that they’re relying usually on reports from people doing reconnaissance,” he said.

“The thermal imaging camera gives us a view of deteriorating conditions in a structure and allows us to pull people out more safely.”

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READ MORE: Winnipeg police use Air1 helicopter to help fire crews

Under current flight parameters, the craft must be operated from the scene of the incident.

“Right now, there’s regulations changing within Transport Canada and across Canada looking towards something called BVLOS, which is Beyond Visual Line of Sight, but right now we actually have to be onsite, within line of site, to operate it,” Wilkinson said. “It’s going to be deployed off one of our rescue units which will be deployed directly to the scene.”

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The drone will help find hot spots in fires and can also be used to locate people in water rescues. Wilkinson said it could also help take pressure off the police’s AIR1 helicopter.

“This will be our own aircraft that we’ll be deploying to all our own incidents. We’re going to rely on this for our primary tool for our visual reconnaissance,” he said.

“The Winnipeg Police Service’s involvement has always been appreciated, but we want to be able to provide that guaranteed response that we have with this unit.”

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The city’s Innovation Capital Fund gave $44,037 in funding to cover the cost of the drone, the camera and training for the pilots.