Our Mission

The mission of this website is to serve as a web‑based gateway for fire department leadership, responding personnel, and crews on the fireground to rapidly obtain real‑time information about the status of a wildland fire. This information is delivered by drones equipped with visible‑spectrum and thermal cameras streaming live video. The footage is transmitted from the aircraft and streamed through YouTube, selected for its robust infrastructure and near‑zero cost to implement. (See “Why YouTube” below.)

The mission of this website is act as a web-based gateway for fire departments’ leadership, responding personnel and personnel on the fireground to rapidly obtain information about the current state of a wildland fire from drones in the air streaming video from visible spectrum cameras and thermal cameras. The video is transmitted from the airborne asset, the drone, and streamed through YouTube. Youtube was chosen for its infrastructure and near-zero-cost to implement. See YouTube further down this page.

Goals

The goal of the project is to develop the tools needed to reduce the risks to life and property during a wildland firefighting incident. This is done through information sharing, thus increasing the safety margin for personnel on the fireground while allocating resources most effectively to protect life and property.

Project Origins

Tom Olson, the Project Owner/Technical Director is a Navy Veteran, Firefighter, former Pilot and current FAA Part 107 Commercial UAS (Drone) Pilot with Lonestar Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance LLC, (see LoneStarISR.com), working in aerial wildlife management under a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Aerial Wildlife Manager’s Certificate and experienced deployments into Search and Rescue missions involving emergency SGI waivers to secure airspace to protect life and property.

Olson developed a hypothesis that during the fire’s progression at some point on that timeline, there would be a chance to bring in aerial assets via Helicopter with a Bambi Bucket, Aerial Tanker or smaller fixed-wing aircraft like the Cessna 188 Ag Wagon to prevent a small fire from becoming a devastating fire. Through his research and conversations with pilots that conduct aerial firefighting, he saw a pathway to eventually integrate small unit tactics with these aircraft on the fireground directed by an incident commander on the ground or remotely with a state or federal forestry service.

This project is the first implementation of Olson’s tools that are under development.

Stages of Development

Completed

• Aerial Intelligence through Video Surveillance: Deployment of UAS platforms capable of streaming radiometric thermal imagery and visible‑spectrum video directly to incident commanders.
• Creation of a Web‑Based Platform: A centralized online location for responding agencies, unit‑level assets, and firefighters on the ground to access the same intelligence in real time.

In Progress

• Standardizing Tools for FAA 91.113 Waiver Requests: Developing a streamlined process for qualified pilots to file expedited requests as members of a recognized safety organization (in this case, the fire department) via the FAA System Operations Support Center (SOSC) in Washington, D.C.
• Effectiveness Analysis: Evaluating the performance of Stages 1–3 before advancing to Stage 4.
• Information Quality Enhancements: Improving data tools, software, and communications based on findings from the above evaluations.
• Phase 2 Start: Beginning development of tools integrating additional airborne firefighting assets into incident operations.

Who can participate?

At this time, participation as a pilot is limited to vetted members of fire departments located in Kerr County, Texas with valid Airmen’s Certificate as a commercial or private pilot with UAS flight experience or a current FAA Part 107 commercial drone pilot’s certificate to fly in the National Air Space (NAS).

For departments in adjoining counties that do not yet employ drones for wildland fire operations, a mutual‑aid request may be submitted through the Kerr Fire Communications Center (FireComm) to the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department.

Check back here for updates to this policy as the project expands.

Why YouTube

YouTube provides a stable, well‑tested infrastructure with an application installed on nearly every mobile device in the United States. Its extensive bandwidth capacity and resilient backend systems ensure consistent, buffer‑free video delivery from the upstream source. Additionally, YouTube provides this capability at no cost, making it an ideal platform for rapid deployment and wide accessibility.