Drones have been crucial in the Crater Road fire — and MFD’s reliance on them is growing

The drones flying above the slopes of Haleakalā can capture something that from the ground is hard to see — dozens of little hotspots where a large brush fire has left roots smoldering even after the flames are gone. 

Air and ground crews at the site of the 574-acre Crater Road brush fire are relying on the drones’ thermal imaging to keep tabs on the fire, where wide-open spaces and varied terrain have made it a challenge to fight the blaze conventionally. 

“This fire is not visible from the road or from one particular point you can’t see the whole fire,” Maui Fire Department Chief Brad Ventura said during a news conference on Monday. “So at night when our resources were lower and they were on foot, we’d use the drone to fly around to provide situational awareness, because if there was a flare-up, that might have triggered some action on our part or notifications to the community. So the drones are there all night to fly and keep an eye on the fire.” 

The fire, which started on Wednesday evening and was 80 percent contained as of Monday, has taken several days to battle because of its terrain and limited access — of the fire’s 4-mile perimeter, only a quarter-mile of it has a road, Ventura said. Bulldozers have crossed gulches to cut fire lines, but they can’t operate in areas of very soft soil or the lava fields at the top of the fire, forcing crews to hike in on foot and dig with hand tools. 

That’s made air assets a key part of the operation. In addition to making water drops, helicopters are shuttling firefighters to different spots along the fire and moving portable water tanks that crews can rely on for a few hours at a time as they work their way down the fire line. At the peak of the response, seven helicopters were involved in fighting the fire, including National Guard aircraft that dropped more than 63,000 gallons of water on the fire on Friday and Saturday alone, Ventura said. 

At night, the drones go to work, using forward-looking infrared cameras to detect the locations of hotspots that can be shared with crews in the morning.

“We can overlay it over a map, so you can see the gulch areas, you can see landmarks like the eucalyptus grove, and then you can see the perimeter clearly,” Ventura said. “And then we can work, using the mapping to identify the exact locations of where hotspots are, where we should be putting people in our efforts.”

MFD’s drone program was created just over a year ago and was “really in its infancy” when the Aug. 8 wildfires broke out Upcountry and in Lahaina, MFD spokesman Chris Stankis said. The department started training staff and getting equipment last spring and now has four drones — which range in price from $6,000 to $10,000 — and nine total trained operators, who were already firefighters of various ranks and had to get Federal Aviation Administration certification to fly the drones. 

The Maui Police Department also has a drone program that helps it map crash scenes, and Stankis said MFD felt drones would expand capabilities while reducing hazards. 

“Every time you put a helicopter up, there’s an inherent risk to life,” Stankis said in an interview Monday. “They’re machines, and if a machine breaks down while it’s flying, especially in the case of a helicopter, usually the results are catastrophic. So any time we can go and put the drone up to do a job that maybe in the past we would’ve done with a helicopter, it’s providing for a safer working environment for everyone involved.”

The drones couldn’t fly on Aug. 8 — the winds were too strong for either helicopters or drones — but they went out on Aug. 9 to hunt for hotspots in Kula, Olinda and Pūlehu, Stankis said. He added that the drones also helped to map burn zones in Lahaina and to conduct aerial searches for possible victims offshore while MFD’s Ocean Safety crews and the U.S. Coast Guard searched from the water.

Stankis estimated that the drones are being used several times a month, depending on the need.

“A lot of it depends on, do we have areas that we can’t easily put eyes on? Or do we have like a large area that’s just impractical for someone to walk the perimeter of because it’s going to take them an extended period of time, whereas it could be overflown with the drone in a matter of minutes?” Stankis explained. 

The drones’ ability to track hotspots is a crucial tool for firefighting. Last year’s wildfires in Kula and Olinda continued smoldering in trunks and roots for months after Aug. 8, and ground crews regularly patrolled and watered down areas to keep the fire in check. Like last year’s fires, the terrain of the Crater Road fire includes wide swaths of open land, towering eucalyptus trees and deep gulches. Military aircraft are saturating one grove of eucalyptus trees in particular where falling burned trunks have made it dangerous for ground crews to enter, Ventura said.

Stankis noted that it’s hard to predict how long the hotspots from the current fire will smolder. It all depends on the weather — a heavy rain, for example, could help put them out more quickly. Given the current conditions Upcountry, including lower-than-average humidity, “it’s going to take us awhile to get this completely mopped up and taken care of,” Stankis said. Much of that will come down to ground crews digging up hotspots by hand.

Eventually, MFD hopes both drones and piloted aircraft can work together to tackle fires. Both have their limitations, especially when winds pick up — at one point on Friday night, operators couldn’t fly the drones because the winds were too strong, according to Stankis. 

“Even that program in itself has room for improvement because as of right now, we fly either aircraft or drones, but not at the same time,” Ventura said. “But we have to get to a point, eventually, where we can fly both of them together because they provide different information, from, you know, for command.

“So, like I said, constantly looking for ways to improve, whether it’s technology or whatnot. … There’s very, very traditional ways to fight fire. And with the weather that we’re facing now, we have to sometimes think outside the box, how it’s going to impact communities faster.”