Officials with the U.S. Forest Service are asking residents to stop flying drones near active wildfires. The unmanned aircraft have become a growing problem for the agency.
So far this fire season, officials have recorded three instances where drones have interrupted firefighting operations.
Jennifer Jones is a Forest Service spokesperson. She said in a couple of those cases, officials had to shut down air operations causing the fire to grow larger.
"What most members of the public don’t realize is that our firefighting aircrafts fly at about the same altitude that their drones fly, just a couple hundred feet off the ground," she explained. "So there’s a lot of potential for an actual midair collision between a drone and an aircraft."
Jones added drones also pose a risk to firefighter safety in the event that they lose their communication link and fall out of the sky.
