BEDFORD, Va. – The Bedford Fire Department’s drone team has become an asset to search and rescue operations all across Southwest Virginia.
The department's drone is unique because of thermal imaging technology that detects heat and can help first responders find a missing person.
"As long as they're not submerged, we can still see a form of heat," Bedford Fire Department drone program coordinator Curtis Marshall said.
Just last week, Bedford’s drone team helped search for a missing 9-year-old boy with autism in Pittsylvania County.
"As soon as I put it in the air and I rotated the drone towards that field and flew towards it and I saw that one specific spot, I was like, 'We cannot be this lucky to find this kid that fast,'" Marshall said.
When search crews arrived at the heat spot the drone identified, they found it was a calf.
"We were like, ‘Ugh, but OK, let's keep going,'" Marshall said.
A volunteer on the ground found the boy the next day, but still, the drone mission was successful, making the search far simpler and helping crews know where not to look.
"Not knowing exactly, even close or remotely what area the child may be in, you have 100 and some people out there looking for the actual child and it just takes so much time. We covered the same amount of ground in two minutes," Bedford Fire deputy chief Matt Scott said.
Bedford's drone team has helped with dozens of rescues since launching in 2015, including a successful search for a 4-year-old in Halifax County in February and another successful search for a 9-year-old in Bedford County in March.