Hillsborough County Fire Rescue starts flying whole blood to trauma scenes by drone in October. County commissioners approved the program on September 2, and Fire Rescue demonstrated it for reporters on Monday, September 28. Two Archer First Response Systems (ArcherFRS) drones, one at Station 9 in Sabal Park and one at Station 37 in Riverview, cover 70 square miles (181 square km) of unincorporated Hillsborough County.
When DroneXL last reported on the program, on August 18, it was still waiting on that vote. Tampa General Hospital, the program’s hospital partner, said in its August 3 announcement that Fire Rescue would operate the drones. The county’s September 24 release says Fire Rescue has contracted ArcherFRS to pilot them.
ArcherFRS Pilots in Sarasota Fly Hillsborough’s Blood Drones
Fire Rescue holds the FAA’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight Certificate of Waiver for both aircraft. The people at the controls work for ArcherFRS, which the county contracted for piloting, monitoring and maintenance, and which flies the drones from its Sarasota flight operations center, according to Tampa Bay 28.
The county’s release lets either a 911 operator or a paramedic at the scene order a unit of whole blood. The drones fly largely on their own, with pilots watching around the clock and ready to change course, WFLA reported. ArcherFRS founder and CEO Gordon Folkes told Tampa Bay 28 that each drone waits at its station in a climate-controlled container, already loaded with blood. Over the scene it hovers at about 197 feet (60 meters), and “we lower the deployable payload to the ground on a tether line,” he said.
The paramedic option targets a problem ArcherFRS has hit before. Its first deployment, with Tampa General in Manatee County, launched in May 2024 and went more than seven months without a 911 dispatcher using it, Government Technology reported that December. The one launch attempted in that stretch failed its pre-flight checks in bad weather.
Hillsborough’s Release Gives Three Delivery Times for One Drone
Hillsborough County’s September 24 release sets the expected average delivery at just under three minutes. It also promises blood on scene in three and a half minutes or less. A flight to the far edge of the coverage area, the same release says, takes five minutes.
A five-minute flight breaks a three-and-a-half-minute ceiling, so the shorter figure can only describe a typical run. WFLA’s Monday report turned it into the average. Tampa General’s August 3 announcement, which we covered on August 4, said under three minutes on average. Each operating area covers 35 square miles (91 square km), from Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 in the north to just south of Gibsonton Drive. All of these figures are projections, because the system has not flown a live call.
Hillsborough Has Not Published What It Pays ArcherFRS
Neither the county’s September 24 release nor the August announcements from Tampa General and ArcherFRS say what Hillsborough County pays for the program. When Manatee County took up its ArcherFRS deal in 2020, the county’s share was one dollar a month for the first year.
Florida Health Sciences, which operates Tampa General, agreed to pay most of Manatee’s costs, Firehouse reported that September. Hillsborough commissioners approved their program at the September 2 regular meeting, and nothing the county has published since attaches a dollar figure to it. The county calls year one a proof of concept. After it, Fire Rescue wants each operating area grown to 50 square miles (130 square km), then coverage of the entire 900-square-mile (2,331 square km) county.
DroneXL’s Take
Blood on a tether over a Riverview roadside is exactly the drone delivery I argue for: cargo where minutes decide whether someone lives. In my August 18 report, my read was that the vote would pass and October would hold. The vote passed. I also have no problem with a contractor in Sarasota flying the aircraft. A fire department covering 900 square miles has no business staffing round-the-clock remote pilots for two drones, and the FAA waiver stays in Fire Rescue’s name.
The price is a different matter. ArcherFRS sells this through its Champion Hospital program, the model Manatee started with a hospital paying most of the bill, and Hillsborough is now the showcase every fire chief will study. If Tampa General is paying, the county should say so and say how much, because the next county to call ArcherFRS may not have a trauma hospital willing to write the check.
Sources: Hillsborough County, WFLA, Tampa Bay 28, Tampa General Hospital, Government Technology, Firehouse
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
