And therein lies the problem. These people are not infallible. Heck you don’t have to look far for reports of police activities to know that people who are supposed to be in authority make mistakes.
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Wrong calls happen, it is the the price a community pays for having fire, rescue, and EMS protection, the question was if it was an unethical decision.
In command classes I always taught that most ethics problems would be solved if when making a decision, especially fiscal or personally benefiting, every public servant were to consider their every action if it were printed on the first page of the newspaper.
I would have no problem explaining a knocked out drone, arrested(safely) paraglider, or caught dog to an incident review, fire board, or reporter as long as I could point out a reasonable concern that they were risking my fire crew even with distracting interference. Determining what is sufficient interference is up to the trained responders on scene.
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False threshold.
Does that drone operate on radio frequencies? Which ones? Don’t know? Then it might interfere. Plus, it’s annoying.
Plus, honestly, it’s a bit like following a strangers funeral procession. Which is reason enough, aside from generally erring on the side of protecting the firemen being plenty of reason.
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People are not infallible. You and I are equally in that boat with these people.
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Drones are loud. Especially when they’re hovering close. I suspect that when a firefighter is inside a burning structure, they want as little outside distraction as possible so that they can a) hear calls for help from people trapped inside (not likely in this case), or b) hear creaking sounds that might indicate impending structural collapse (much more likely, given the visual extent of damage).
Also, sometimes, rarely, drones randomly drop out of the sky unexpectedly (lost radio connection, dead battery, etc). This drone was hovering directly overhead of firefighters on a couple of occasions.
I don’t imagine it was the voyeuristic aspect of the drone that annoyed the firefighters, but the safety issues.
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There’s a difference between a helicopter flying over an open air locker room en route to something else, and some creep hovering his drone above it explicitly to capture video of people showering and changing. I have no solutions. But one is clearly an invasion of privacy and one is not.
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I agree, just remembered how I often had to have a subconscious ear out for the condition of several ventilation fans, sounds from the structure, radio talk, surrounding voices, listening to the fire engines and the condition of the pumps. Modern firefighting is pretty scientific and safe, it is because we drill hard constantly but also because the training is towards being aware of all likely dangers and tightly controlling the situation to eliminate every surprise or distraction we can.
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Quite, but im not calling for destruction of other people’s property
A net-launcher of some sort. Clearly a hose isn’t going to do the job.
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Oh hell, I am. Smash it up and good riddance to them!
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Radio frequencies? This is a strawman that’ll burn up faster than the house.
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That’s what they said about cameras when they first came out.
Troglodytes fearfully and unnecessarily resist technical advances.
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You’d think with all the tail they’ve been getting since 9/11 they would chill the fuck out.
Yeah, a drone operator has no business flying solo over an emergency response area. Not sure hosing it down is the most professional reaction, but definitely understandable. And if you are within range of the hose, you are too close.
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Wait, this is satire, right? It’s an event of legitimate public interest. Would you have us declare no-fly zones every time the engine leaves the fire station? This is just more hero worship of “public servants” who spend far too much time whining about how hard their jobs are because the public they are supposed to serve doesn’t coddle them enough. Don’t like it? Get a different job.
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I only wish the drone had been worth more.
Drone delivery wouldn’t be happening out in the country. And at least in Canada it’s illegal to discharge a firearm in city limits.
There already are regulations concerning how close you can get to an area where emergency operations are taking place. News helicopters aren’t allowed to get as close as the drone did, and if a firefighter’s career is cut short because s/he caught a face full of plastic blades from a toy that some hot dog couldn’t control, that’s a bigger cost to everyone.
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And what if he only lost control of his drone because a firefighter sprayed a high pressure water hose at it?
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If they’re shooting at it, they’re watching it. Firefighters have busted up some pretty expensive cars just for being parked in front of a hydrant. Real emergencies and safety ake precedence over whatever privilege gawkers might think they’re owed.
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