The fire department, within the framework of the drone laboratory promoted by Actua Innovation, the Observatory for the Sustainability of Andorra (OBSA)and the Centre for Snow and Mountain Studies in Andorra (CENMA) of the Andorran Studies Institute (IEA), are expanding competences within the corps to work with this technology in emergency situations. In fact, in the near future their intention is to train 3 more pilots, thus, adding to the already existing one.
Drones allow higher speed and resolution of various emergency services such as house fires, mainly on rooftops or chimneys, forest fires, rock fall, avalanches and search and rescue efforts, as they include thermographic.
In this sense, the director of Actua Innovation, Marc Pons, highlighted that “the project has permitted the testing for this technology´s potential in the firefighters´ day to day operations and helped define how to complement the audiovisual area – drones in special corps, normalizing and expanding their use in maneuvering and operations.”
The fire department´s joint director, Jordi Farré pointed out that “normalizing the use of these types of devices in the solving of services provided, allows us to gain a higher degree of professionality and efficient solving of the tasks we face regularly.”
Collective drone work among different entities in the country
The drone laboratory, beyond the Fire Department, Actua Innovation, OBSA and the CENMA, wants to integrate other entities in the country interested in the use of this technology. The attractive legal framework defined by the Government´s Transport Department can be an attractive point to encourage Andorran entities to develop new applications in this field and even attract specialized companies in this sector to the Principality.
In the short term, one of the drone laboratory´s objectives is to provide access to its fleet of non-piloted aircraft to various companies and entities in the country.
