Fire with battery: in Russia, for the first time, a drone for extinguishing fires with autonomous power was tested

In the Russian Federation, a drone was tested to extinguish fires in high-rise buildings. This is the first device of its kind that uses its own batteries instead of a cable for power. During the test flight, the drone successfully lifted the fire hose to a height of more than 50 m and eliminated the fire with foam. According to rescuers, based on the results of the experiments, a decision will be made on the calculation of the device. The introduction of technology into the work of firefighters will help solve one of their main problems — fighting fire on the upper floors. However, in addition to delivering water and foam there, it is also necessary to develop unmanned methods for evacuating people, experts noted.

Fire Fighting Drone Tests

The Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Sverdlovsk region conducted tests of an unmanned aerial vehicle for extinguishing fires on high-rise buildings. During the test flight, the UAV was used to raise a sleeve to the 15th floor level, through which compression foam was supplied to eliminate a conditional fire. The test results were considered successful. According to the representative of the special service, in the future, materials will be prepared and sent to the central office of the Ministry of Emergency Situations to make a decision on the deployment of this device in combat crew. The UAV was developed with the support of the NTI Foundation.

— As an advantage of this technology, I would like to mention climbing to a height without using special high-altitude equipment. These are hard-to-reach places where there are practically no access roads, meaning that vehicles will not be able to drive there, and an unmanned aerial vehicle will be able to overcome all obstacles and get to the right point. It is important that the drone can operate at those levels that the aerial ladder cannot reach," said Egor Bukhryakov, head of the fire extinguishing service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in the Sverdlovsk Region, Colonel of the internal service.

The tests took place in two stages. During the first one, which took place at the Loginovo airfield, high-altitude flights were practiced. The drones rose to heights of 60 and 100 m, where they extinguished a simulated fire using a foam solution. The task is to test the stability of the UAVs, the possibility of their confident piloting at high altitude and the accurate spraying of fire extinguishing agent. Each device was tested under conditions of foam application under different pressure.

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The second stage took place in a 33-storey high-rise under construction on Malysheva Street in Yekaterinburg. There it was necessary to eliminate a simulated fire at an altitude of 50 m. The drone took off, stopped at a given point and was able to accurately deliver fire extinguishing agents in the right direction.

— Currently, we are at the stage of developing high-altitude fire extinguishing and rescue technology with representatives of the regional and central offices of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The issue of further introduction of rescue drones into the practice of Russian fire departments is being actively discussed, said the deputy director of the Laboratory of the Future company (developer of the device) Ilya Shevelev.

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According to the developers, now in the Russian Federation there is only one analog of a fire extinguishing drone, which has the prospect of serial production. The drone flies with a power cable and, according to its creators, can "hang" in the air for up to 72 hours. However, this requires the installation of a powerful generator of up to 30 kW, which greatly complicates the preparation for the flight and makes it time-consuming. In contrast, the device tested by the Ministry of Emergency Situations does not need a tethered power supply system and can extinguish a fire at a height of up to 100 m for 9 minutes with a load of up to 100 kg on its regular batteries.

As fire safety expert Alexey Dronov explained to Izvestia, UAVs are practically not used in Russia to extinguish fires. Aircraft are mainly used for reconnaissance purposes. There are plans to create a drone for lifting a sleeve built into a fire truck, but this work has not yet been completed.

— Definitely, drones for extinguishing fires are our future. And they have to find their place in the fire department. However, so far these devices can only be used to counteract fire. But in the area of the 15th floor and above, there is a serious problem with rescuing people. And the existing equipment cannot cope with this. The most promising developments are in this direction," he said.

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During the test, the capabilities of the M500 Truck unmanned aerial system were tested to extinguish fires. The model has eight engines that can accelerate the device with a load of up to 40 km per hour at a range of up to 7 km.

Extinguishing high—rise buildings is one of the main difficulties for firefighters, as it is not always possible to supply water there. Global experience shows that the use of drones can solve this problem, Konstantin Kaluzhin, an expert in the field of fire safety at the Soyuz-01 Association, explained to Izvestia. In his opinion, they had not been used before for these purposes, as such equipment has very high technical requirements.

— Drones can be very effective for working on high-rise buildings. We need to learn from the successful experience gained in other countries," Konstantin Kaluzhin said.

A lot of power is needed to raise it to a height of 30-40 meters. At the same time, the device must maintain a stable position, therefore, much more complex devices are needed for this than those used, for example, for reconnaissance. If such equipment has already been successfully tested by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, then it needs to be implemented as soon as possible, the specialist concluded.