The New York City’s fire department carries on their duty of protecting their community from fire, but now they have another way of doing so with the help of drones.

The new drone will serve as surveillance, this way the firefighters of New York can witness the fire from their station and see the damage that they have to deal with.  It will display high definition images, which will give them an idea of how to respond to the situation, according to the New York Times.

The drone is set to be put into effect in the next few weeks and it will respond to two-alarms and greater fires, officials said.

Firefighting has been a challenge for these employees because when they respond to a fire, they are unaware of how big the situation is until they reach their destination.  Adding technology to the job will decrease the risk of a hazardous aftermath.

This idea was given to them since the 9/11 terrorist attack.  The tragedy on that day colossal for the fire department to handle and numerous people have lost their lives that day.

After that catastrophe, the fire department began to take more efficient measures.  They added an operations center in their department, a wall of monitors to display calls and a live stream from a police helicopter.

The fire department saw that having the drone would be beneficial to them after a gas explosion in 2014.  The explosion killed eight people and two buildings collapsed, according to the New York Times.

Having the drones to look for danger had some obstacles in the way.  One example was having them fly around restricted areas.  Federal authorities have restricted areas in which the drones can’t fly around.

This issue had the fire department make an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration in order to have their drones fly around those areas, so that they can still be on alert for fires.

With the new technology on their side, the New York City’s fire department can keep their community safe from harm.

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