SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash — Firefighters all across Spokane County worked without much rest this weekend, battling three wildfires.
Fire crews faced some aerial issues in one of those fires on Sunday.
While flying a drone is usually fun, it actually kept firefighters from doing their job this weekend.
Time is precious for firefighters. In a fast-moving wildfire, especially when it's wind-driven, seconds count, and they put those seconds to good use with crews on the ground and air support swooping in from above.
But according to Ryan Rodruck with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), as fire crews tackled Sunday's fire by Highway 195 and Mullen Hill Road, air support stayed on the ground even longer because of a private drone.
"We cannot fly when drones are in the airspace," Rodruck said.
"Thankfully, it was just a very brief delay until that drone was able to be cleared. But in a wildfire, seconds matter."
Rodruck said having a drone in the air at the same time as their planes and helicopters is a safety issue.
"There is the potential that that drone could impact one of the engines," Rodruck said. "It is a very, very serious safety concern."
It's a concern they are seeing more and more often and an unfortunate development, according to Rodruck, considering how efficient air units are with fighting fires.
"It's extremely successful when we put air on these fires," Rodruck said. "We know that for wildfires, if we can keep them to 10 acres or less, the chances of them turning into a catastrophic wildfire decrease exponentially."
So when a fire starts, DNR said one of the best things the public can do is leave the drone at home.
"It is July," Rodruck said. "We still have a lot of fire season left."
According to the U.S. Forest Service, in 2019, there were at least 20 instances of unauthorized drone flights over or near wildfires in seven states, including Washington.
And if you do so, it could cost you. It's a federal offense to knowingly operate a drone over a wildfire.