Dubai: Drones are being tested to play a central role in providing reconnaissance and assessing fire and accident sites in Dubai, the Dubai Civil Defence (DCD) announced on Monday at the second day of the 37th Gitex Technology Week.
Equipped with a sophisticated camera and communications system, the new drones can provide live video feed and thermal images to the central command centre, enabling DCD, Dubai Police and other entities involved in rescue missions better plan their response to an emergency.
Speaking to Gulf News, Maan Al Shakarchi, Director of Avaya International, the technology provider, said that apart from providing live feed, the thermal imaging of the drone cameras can also help detect the source of fire.
“DCD, when they get a fire alert, they dispatch drones to monitor the situation, what we are enabling them to do is that through the use of thermal and surveillance cameras combine all the video streams into one central conference calls involving all emergency response entities. This will help them better plan their responses,” said Al Shakarchi.
Elaborating further, Mohammad Yousuf Al Emadi, Manager of Network and Servers section of DCD said that the new drones can play multiple roles that not will not only help the firemen fight the fire more efficiently, but it will also help provide aerial surveillance of warehouses and industrial locations that are more prone to fire cases.
“Once we get an emergency alert, which could be anything from a road accident to a major fire, we immediately send drones to assess the situation, which then sends live videos of the site to our command centre helping us quickly make a response strategy,” said Al Emadi.
He added that the sophisticated cameras in the drones can also help avert potential disasters well before they happen.
“We have seen that many warehouses and factories flout the storage restrictions for chemicals and other inflammable material, sometimes exposing them to direct sunlight which could lead to fire and explosions. The thermal imaging of the drone cameras can help us detect these practices which is otherwise difficult for us to monitor,” added Al Emadi.
