These drones won’t make a damn bit of difference. We already have the electric utilities, trailers dragging chains, malfunctioning catalytic converters, fireworks, lightning, idiots using riding mowers on tall dry grass at midday, string trimmers hitting rocks, bullets ricocheting, kids playing with matches, and untold other ways that wildfires are started. Climate change makes the fire season is longer and the individual fires more severe. If it can burn, it will.
If you live in an area that can burn, get used to that kind of preparation. Pictures and video will help you remember what was lost when the worst happens. Do what you can for defensible space, too – though that didn’t do a damn thing for us. The fire that took our house four years ago seemed to sprint toward us, eight freaking miles in 24 hours. It took some 300 homes in those first 24 hours. With no more than 20 structure protection crews on-scene in that first day, it’s obvious there was no way one would be available in our area. We were alone to evaluate the risks and decide when to leave. Just one homes in our neighborhood got an evacuation warning before the deputy (who came up from Stockton, 60 miles away) turned tail in fear of his own safety. Our evacuation plans and lists worked well enough, but there are a half-dozen things we only realize now should have been on those lists.
Sorry to sound nihilist. Entropy will get you, sooner or later.
