Drones Disrupt Firefighting Efforts in Washington

Washington state Firefighters are at their wits’ end. Drones, flown by curious onlookers, are hovering over wildfires, making their challenging job even more difficult.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expressed its frustration with the public through a series of tweets.

“It’s not cute!” the department emphasized, highlighting incidents occurring “multiple times this year.”

Thomas Kyle-Milward, the DNR’s communications manager for wildfires, shared, “It’s always a good time to remind people not to practice dangerous behavior when fire suppression is going on.”

The department’s tweets weren’t triggered by a single event, but rather an “accumulation of reports and complaints from fire personnel.”

So why is this such a concern? Civilian drones seeking to capture footage of the fiery chaos disrupt the established firefighting protocol.