Life-saving drones may be wave of the future at U.S. beaches
POMPANO BEACH, Florida - Drones may be coming to a beach near you. When it comes to rescuing swimmers in trouble, drones carrying a life preserver ring may reach swimmers faster than a lifeguard, CBS News Miami WFOR reports.
On Thursday, at Pompano Beach in Florida, it took a demonstration drone 22-seconds to get to a swimmer. Twenty seconds later, the lifeguard arrived. But, the drone didn't drop the floatation device, it kept going, dropping it further away.
Fire Chief of Pompano Beach Fire, John Jurgle, told WFOR that drones aren't replacements for lifeguards, but may be used to assist them when attempting to save someone's life.
"We will always use a lifeguard but we're testing the feasibility of using a drone," Jurgle said.
WFOR reports that during the demonstrations, the drone made it to the person in half the time, but only once out of three times did it get the life preserver close to the person.
"Normally, when we've done this before, the pilot drops the personal floatation device literally within feet of the swimmer. Our goal is to get the device out there quickly as we can, as close to the victims we can," said Jurgle.
Fire rescue may train their own personnel to operate the drones. Drones could prove to be helpful in stretches of beach that do not have lifeguards. The idea would be while human help is on the way, the drones could assist in a rescue.
"I think that's wonderful, absolutely. It shaves minutes off a desperate situation," said Cloe Wahl.
Pompano Fire Rescue is also testing the drones for other things such as surveillance at fires.
"The benefit of having a drone, we could pop that thing up in the air and often times you can find things much quicker because you can survey a much longer area," said Jurgle.
Fire rescue officials told WFOR that the drone is still in a testing phase and there is no timeline as to when drones may be seen on the beach.