News, deep dives, and analysis — every Wildfire story, newest first.
The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection (DFFP) used its Unmanned Aerial Systems Module to identify hot spots and spot fires across the Gerstle River during the Sawmill Creek Fire, helping ground crews achieve 100 percent containment four days after ignition. The fire was held to 14.8 acres on state land east of Delta…
China just moved a hydrogen fuel cell system for drones from the lab to the field. Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, completed a successful demonstration flight and passed a national scientific appraisal that puts the technology on the path to commercial deployment, as reported by…
The FAA has finally filed the Section 2209 NPRM, the DJI FCC comment deadline is May 11th, and 218 wildfire drone incursions were recorded in 2025 — more than the past 7 years combined.
The U.S. Forest Service reported 218 drone sightings over active wildfires in 2025, more than the previous seven years combined. Most happened during the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles, where 184 drones entered restricted airspace, as the Rogue Valley Times reported. The agency wants the public to understand the math. Every unauthorized drone…
Two and a half years after a downed power line sparked the fire that killed 102 people and erased most of Lahaina, Hawaiian Electric is flying drones over every island it serves, as Maui News reported. The utility has contracted three separate inspection firms across Maui County, Molokai, the Big Island, and Oahu, all targeting…
Oregon operator Precision has flown the Airbus Flexrotor on wildfire contracts since 2014, now under a federal contract watching fires overnight.
A British Columbia court has ordered Kelowna realtor Derek Leippi to pay a CAD $5,000 fine (roughly USD $3,600) for flying a DJI drone from a boat on Okanagan Lake during the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire, an incident that pulled a helicopter pilot off fire suppression to chase the unmanned aircraft. PetaPixel reported the sentencing…
Oregon DOA files FCC drone dominance comments proposing three mountain test sites, spectrum reform, and a waiver process for public safety drone operations.
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