--- title: "Firefighters Are Using Drones That Drop Fireballs" description: "Firefighters across the West Coast are dropping special fireballs from drones to keep an unusually severe wildfire season under control." date: "2020-10-16" modified: "2020-10-16" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/firefighters-drones-drop-fireballs" categories: - "Drones" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "drones" - "the digest" - "wildfire" - "wildfires" --- # Firefighters Are Using Drones That Drop Fireballs ![Firefighters across the West Coast are dropping special fireballs from drones to keep an unusually severe wildfire season under control.]() *\Image: Drone Amplified\* ## Raining Fireballs Firefighters across the West Coast are dropping special fireballs from drones to keep an unusually severe wildfire season under control, [*National Geographic* reports](). The ping pong ball-sized incendiaries, called "Dragon Eggs," explode when they hit the ground and start small fires known as backfires. While that may sound counterintuitive, the goal is to remove any possible fuel sources for larger fires that are spreading nearby. "A bonus is you can do nighttime ops and work in smoky conditions, because if a drone crashes, no one dies," Simon Weibel, a firefighter who works for a company called Drone Amplified, told the magazine. ## A Growing Problem A single drone can release about 450 incendiary devices in a matter of minutes, according to *NateGeo*, and about 30 pilots are flying around two dozen drones across the Western states this season, which is twice as many as last year. Fires this year are far bigger and more difficult to get under control than previous years, with demand for drones skyrocketing. "We’re getting a significant increase in requests this year," Joe Suarez, a drone specialist with the National Park Service, told *NatGeo*. "We don’t have the pilots or aircraft to meet the needs now." ## Fire With Fire Apart from drones, firefighters have also resorted to using smoke-penetrating thermal-imaging cameras to track the movement of fires, and wearing high-tech flame-resistant clothing. California has also been flying dozens of aircraft over the fires, releasing water and fire retardant. *NatGeo* reports that the newest addition to the fleet, the Cal Fire Firehawk, can drop 1,000 gallons, three times as much water as older helicopters, and then refill its tanks with a snorkel at a nearby body of water. **READ MORE:** [Fireball-dropping drones and the new technology helping fight fires]() \[*National Geographic*\] **More on wildfires:** *[West Coast Wildfire Smoke Hits NYC, Causing Weird-Looking Sunsets]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()