San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District Receives New Drone

DANVILLE, CA - The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District has an impressive new tool in its firefighting arsenal: a drone with advanced cameras that can provide excellent photos and video of aerial views of fires, which will aid response time and accuracy. The new drone boasts a 48 megapixel camera, 16x magnification, and thermal imaging, according to Roger Smith, president of the Alamo Improvement Association.

The Alamo Improvement Association was able to secure the drone through a $60,000 grant. Part of the funding came from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is awarding grants to make the more than 800 miles of pipeline within Contra Costa County safer. On Monday, Smith met with District II Supervisor Candace Andersen, SRVFPD Fire Chief Paige Meyer, and representatives from the Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Commission and Alamo Improvement Association to present the new drone.

Drones have proved helpful in stopping fires from spreading. In October 2018, a grass fire near Pittsburg led to an active fire within a large pipeline vault, which resulted in the evacuation of over 4000 residents from 1400 households. Pittsburg police used a drone to assist Chevron and CONFIRE with heat detection in the pipeline, which allowed Chevron to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading.