Mo. FD’s drone program is an eye-opener for firefighters

The Kanas City Fire Department has found its recent drone use to be effective in giving firefighters real-time information

By Bill Carey
FireRescue1

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Fire Department has launched its drone program as part of an effort to quickly provide its firefighters with on-scene information.

Captain Tyler Grosser is the fire department's Drone Coordinator and has eight years of drone piloting experience, KSHB reported.

"Just the amount of information that we can gather quicker than we could have otherwise been the benefit of all of it," Grosser said.

The drones will be used during structure fires, technical rescues, water rescues, wildfires, collapse search and rescue and planned training exercises.

“The first couple of missions we have had, it’s blown people away at the usability and effectiveness of it,” Grosser said about a large pallet fire last month.

“It was a real eye-opener for a lot of people on the department that got to watch it real time," Grosser said. "The amount of information that we could gather from just the perspective of an overall view, knowing the temperatures, knowing when things are getting hot from just the radiant heat that we would have never known otherwise, was very pivotal.”