On a rare overcast day in the mountains of western Colorado, firefighters from the Aspen Fire Protection District huddled around an iPad and flew a drone about the size of a small U-Haul trailer — a first-of-its-kind machine designed to help put out fires, not just watch them, NPR reported.
The black-and-white aircraft, developed by California-based Seneca, has propellers on four large arms and is about 10 by 12 feet wide. Firefighters have used drones to monitor wildfires for decades; this model is designed to work in a swarm and to extinguish flames. Five of the drones can carry 500 to 1,000 gallons of finished fire foam, similar to a small engine, and Aspen crews said they were easy to operate. "We were just joking that my 12-year-old could fly these things," Deputy Chief Andy Fisher said. When Aspen officially launches the program, as early as next year, it would be the first fire department in the world to operate the drones independently, NPR reported. So far they have been used only on prescribed burns in California with support from Seneca staff.
Fisher wants to send them to hard-to-reach fires, such as remote lightning strikes, before crews arrive. Aspen, surrounded by dense forest and with few evacuation routes, is "an expensive tinderbox," the report said. "If we could get it quick, keep them small and attack them while they're smoldering instead of waiting for the wind to pick them up, I feel like that's the most ideal use case," Fisher said. Seneca founder Stuart Landesberg said the drones can cover 5 to 10 miles — double that if empty — and use an AI-supported "sensor suite" to calculate distance and wind before releasing water or retardant at a set angle and velocity. "You can think about it almost like a flying Waymo," he said. They will not replace air tankers on large fires, he said, but can carry tools, watch hot spots and cost "two orders of magnitude" less than helicopters.
Aspen Fire expects to pay about $2.5 million over five years, with private donors footing the bill. Joe Stutler, a firefighter with nearly 60 years of experience who is not affiliated with Aspen or Seneca, said he is a "big proponent of technology" and likes that the drones could fly at night, when manned aircraft are often grounded, potentially reducing risk for crews. But he remains skeptical because Seneca has tested them on prescribed burns, not real wildfires. "I haven't seen any results," he said. "It's one thing to make a claim. It's something else to back it up with data." The FAA granted Aspen a waiver in late October; once training is finished, Fisher said the department could fly the drones up to 200 feet in Pitkin County, not over populated areas, and only with someone keeping them in sight at all times. If they work, Aspen hopes to expand the waiver and help elsewhere in Colorado.