LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Fires in or around the valley can be devastating, so local officials have taken measures over the years to better prevent and detect them.
The Henderson Fire Department is now using a new piece of technology to help fight fires. Channel 13 got an up-close look at how it works Wednesday.
Watch the tethered drone in action
The video above shows a tethered drone. It's stored on the top of a battalion
chief car and can be used to give an overhead and thermal view of fires.
Henderson Fire is the first department in Las Vegas to use this technology. It's all controlled through an iPad. Since it's connected to a car through a cable, they could just set the height and direction of the camera and leave it unattended.
The drone will stay in place— giving them a view the whole time.
"What that does is it frees up the ability for someone to focus on other firefighting tasks and not be so focused on just piloting a drone," said Adam White, Henderson Fire Battalion Chief.
The drone has the ability to detect the location of fire and smoke, in addition to where the firefighters and possible victims are in the building.
The drone can rise to 150 feet in the air and zoom into the building.
The live look can also be shared with the rest of the fire command team through a QR code— allowing all on scene to have the overhead view.
