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Fire Crews Looking At Adding Drones To Arsenal

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Sacramento City Fire crews are – for the first time – using drones to get a unique and educational vantage point.

"I started off as a teenager saying I would never use a computer, I just wanted to play music. And here I am using nothing but technology," said Kyle Murphy with Km3media.

Sac City firefighter Roberto Padilla found Murphy, who hails from of Roseville, and his spiffy drone through Google.

Murphy says he's been using his drone for real estate purposes, but says when your local fire department calls in a favor "my first thought was to say yes."

Friday, they focused on the spot that burned right up to Cal Expo last week.

"Just to get an aerial view of the post incident is just as important as the incident itself. So we can use it to learn [and] see what happened – and what could have happened," Padilla said.

Like if the fire had crowned – as in jumping from treetop to tree top across this levee and into Cal Expo – all of the livestock and its surroundings would look like the charred remains along the American River.

The drone will allow crews to get a unique perspective of an ember flying the fire lines.

By synching the drone with a smartphone, Murphy and Padilla can watch in real time.

"This is a good way for us to check out the capabilities and see what comes out of it," Padilla said.

Right now, they are just testing out this technology to see if it's something they can use in the future.

Sac City fire tells CBS13 that the cause of the fire near Cal Expo remains undetermined and that investigators haven't ruled anything out.

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