At 8:20 pm on January 21, 2021, a mountain fire broke out in Dashanshan, Shenzhen. Through the terrain and wind, the fire spread rapidly and continuously from the foot to the top of the mountain. The nearby trees and 220KV high-voltage powerline made it even more urgent.
The operator acted quickly, and carried the unmanned aerial vehicle to complete the equipment within 2 minutes. He took off and went deep into the fire scene. The real-time picture was directly connected to the front-line headquarters screen to help the fire commanders judge the fire situation and efficiently configure the ground fire fighting force, provide efficient guarantee for fighting and rescue operations.
This mountain fire is a typical “Mountain Fire”, which usually adopts the extinguishing strategy of “clamping fire from fire wings, cutting fire lines and annihilating them in sections. However, when the first-line team moves towards the top of the mountain, it is likely that there will be a resurgence in the rear where it was originally put out, or a flying fire caused by strong winds. Once it burns, the fire will affect the rescue workers’ back road, causing certain potential safety hazards.
During the fire extinguishing process, the wide angle lens of the UAV always covers the whole fire site, with a bird’s eye view of the whole situation and no important changes.
When there is a resurgence in the rear of the UAV screen, the commander of the headquarters immediately locates the location of the fire point, connects the front, and gives timely warning to avoid the frontline team being surrounded by the fire. Under the command, several tiny fire spots were quickly suppressed.
It is not easy to accurately assess the fire situation at night, especially in the case of dense shrubs such as mountain fires. Thermal imaging cameras can convert thermal radiation into visual images, directly reflecting the temperature difference in the observation area.
In this mountain fire, the fire officers used the thermal imaging camera mounted by unmanned aerial vehicle to directly and accurately locate the fire source position through temperature difference, saving precious time for fire fighting, quickly contain the spread of fire.
After the fire was put out, unmanned aerial vehicles continued to guard the fire from high altitude to prevent the resumption of the fire, and cooperated with power enterprises to investigate the hidden dangers of transmission lines near the affected area.