New drone program offers first responders a first look at emergencies

Canada's first RPAS traffic management system has been developed by AirMarket. Nav Sangha has the details.

A local drone technology company is helping put eyes in the sky before emergency responders get boots on the ground.

Airmarket, a company working on Canada’s first drone air traffic control system, has teamed up with Strathcona County Emergency Services (SCES) on a new long-range drone for first response.

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SCES has had a drone program since 2017. Where those drones are piloted within a line of sight from the scene, the new one will launch automatically and respond to calls for service around Sherwood Park.

“This is a whole new change for us,” said Kelly Lehr, SCES deputy chief of operations. “We could be kilometers away from the actual event.”

Mohr said the drone will launch within 10 seconds of a call and can travel up to 10 kilometres. When it arrives, it will feed live video back to the station, where a drone pilot will take over.

“You can set up areas of exclusion where you don’t want to fly over, like a high obstacle or school yard,” explained Airmarket founder and CEO Lindsay Mohr. “(The drone) will avoid those obstacles and automatically fly there and then give the fire department and emergency responders eyes on.”

Lehr said the drone will allow first responders to scope out the scene and keep tabs on an event as it unfolds, allowing them to better tailor their response, manage resources and keep crews safe.

“The drone will get out there, have a shorter response time than our crews, and that will allow us to feed real-time video to our command staff and our chief officers, so we can make decisions before we even arrive on scene,” he added.

The new drone is expected to start flying this summer and be fully operational in the fall.

Airmarket is also working with Alberta Wildfire to implement artificial intelligence drones that will help with early wildfire detection, as well as drones to be used in agriculture.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nav Sangha