PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Flooding throughout West Michigan on Wednesday was a perfect chance for Plainfield Township Fire Department to put its new drone to work.
"The technology is pretty neat with this," says District Fire Chief Kyle Svoboda.
The drone, which the department bought only a couple weeks ago, uses GPS to mark locations on a map in real time. That allows its crew to see how water has risen or fallen over a period of time.
"You can see all this different flooding, all the different hazards that we might have," says Svoboda.
The drone can also help in a potential rescue, able to spot unsafe situations impossible to see from the ground.
"We're able to get real-time footage, get information from this to get right back to the incident commander to make the best decisions that we can possible," says Svoboda.
The drone also has a thermal imaging camera, which sees what the naked eye can't.
"If they're walking through the water, you might not be able to see it if they're in dark clothes," says Svoboda. "Whereas thermal imaging is going to pick them right up from where the water is."
It's providing potential for a swift recovery if things become treacherous.
"If somebody actually gets in the water and is floating down the river, we can actually pinpoint them and we can have the drone follow them down the river so we know where they're at," says Svoboda.
The drone came at a hefty price, about $17,000. Svoboda is thankful to the Comstock Park Downtown Development Authority for providing funds to buy it.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.