The Canadian Provincial Government will now be helped by Draganfly, an award-winning, industry-leading drone solution in relation to firefighting mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.
Draganfly will be providing drone pilot crews and drone technology to assist emergency services in their mission to protect lives, property, infrastructure and ecosystems. Draganfly's help will come in the form of conducting night-time missions, identifying fire line breaches, and detecting hidden hot spots using thermal imaging technology. Furthermore, the company's services will improve the firefighting operations, which protect critical infrastructure, towns, valuable natural resources, and help mitigate air quality hazards from the devastating impact of wildfires.
The timing of the contract award could not be better as Canada is currently experiencing unprecedented numbers of wildfires which have already burned more than double the land area from the previous record of 7.1 million hectares torched in 1995. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) 5,881 fires have been recorded across the country this year so far, roughly 1,000 more than last year.
According to CIFFC figures, 1,036 active fires are burning throughout Canada with 652 categorised as “out of control”, 161 as “being held” and 223 considered to be under control. Approximately two-thirds of all active fires are burning in the western province of British Columbia (376) and in the Northwest Territories (237). An additional 143 fires are burning in Yukon, 88 in Alberta and 66 in Ontario. While Canada experiences fires every summer, this year's blazes have scorched at least 15.3 million hectares (37.8 million acres) of land, nearly ten-times more than 2022.
