“Because of drought conditions, so far this year over 10,000 acres have already burned from brush fires — twice the number of acres burned during all of 2015.”
Firefighters are thus working as hard as ever to protect communities from dangerous wildfires, including this fire in Kahala that burned close to homes on a steep ridge. A rogue drone was flown in the operation area, prompting HFD and police to call on the drone operator to land. "Having a drone in the air just isn't safe" for firefighters. Please refrain from using drones in areas where firefighters are fighting a blaze. A GoPro video is not worth risking the safety of our firefighters. Please share this message.
“’I thought the fire was going the other way, but it came as close as my property line,’ said Waialae Nui resident Edwin Motoshige. ‘Firemen were here so thankfully, yeah, it was okay.’
‘During our operations, some of our firefighters noticed a drone in the air kind of hovering around right where we were working in our operational areas,’ he said.
Once HFD found the drone’s operator, police were called and the drone was forced to land. With Air One overhead and crews on the ground, Mejia said having a drone in the air just isn’t safe.
‘Sometimes it gets too close in the way of what we’re trying to do and if there’s a failure of the drone, who knows what could happen,’ he said.”