Photo courtesy of Spire Energy
Buddy Wilks, Cahaba Valley Fire District Chief and Eric Rigdon, Spire Manager of Gas Operations.
After applying to the National Public Safety Drone Donation Program (NPS-DDP) in November 2020, the Cahaba Valley Fire and EMR district received a drone on April 4.
In the application, the department explained why the drone would help protect the communities they serve and stated “CVFD provides fire suppression and emergency medical services including transport to approximately 25,000 customers as well as thousands of drivers traveling the U.S. 280 corridor each day. Responding from four stations, CVFD answers around 3,500 calls for assistance each year.”
The donation from Spire of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) thermal drone will assist the department in their response to calls. It also provides thermal capabilities and modeling reality software and will help the department quickly scan and respond to emergencies.
Photo courtesy of Spire Energy
“A UAV drone allows a commander to quickly scan an incident scene to determine hazards and potential victim locations associated with structural and wild-land firefighting, hazardous materials, water rescue and wide area woodland searches,” said CVFD Captain Taylor Gunnels. “This drone will also benefit neighboring agencies in automatic aid responses, including law enforcement.”
“The National Public Safety Drone Donation Program is proud to support this donation and help generate awareness around opportunities for public safety departments, nationally, to apply for a UAV/drone or other hardware and software at no cost,” said Mark Langley, executive director and CEO of NPS-DDP.
Influential Drones works with NPS-DDP to help secure and facilitate donations and SkyeBrowse is donating a six-month license of accident reconstruction software to be used with the drone.
“I am very happy that Spire has chosen to give back to their own community,” said Dave Krause, co-founder of Influential Drones and volunteer FAA Safety Team industry member. The donated drone has high-quality thermal imagery that will help the fire department keep their firefighters safe and respond to calls with advanced technology.”
Spire's manager of gas operations, Eric Rigdon, said that they are always looking for ways to give back to the communities they serve.
“We work closely with first responders and are very grateful for the important services they provide," Rigdon said. "We are happy to be able to make this donation to the Cahaba Valley Fire Department to assist them in keeping our communities safe.”
