The 911 call that arrived just before 8 p.m. on a recent weeknight was a familiar one to San Bernardino County Fire Department dispatchers:
A passerby reported an “unknown type fire” in the city of San Bernardino.
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy pilots the DJI M30T drone as its view is on one of the three screens used to monitor flight, maps and calls on the Caltrans building roof in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager and pilot Jeff Alexy lands the DJI M30T drone on Caltrans building roof top in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
The DJI M30T drone shows men around a burning fire pit which was reporter as a fire on a 911 call from downtown San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. The drone is piloted by San Bernardino County Fire Department Robotics Program Manager and pilot Jeff Alexy from the Caltrans building roof top in San Bernardino. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department Capt. Kristian Cavada readies the DJI M30T drone for flight on the roof of the 12 story Caltrans building in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy pilopts the DJI M30T drone form the roof of the Caltrans building as its monitored on computers in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy, right pilots the DJI M30T drone as Capt. Kristian Cavada provides line of sight of the drone from Caltrans building roof top in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Eric Sherwin, San Bernardino County Fire PIO stands at left. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Dronesense is used to monitor the DJI M30T drone in flight as San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy pilots the drone to a reporter fire from the Caltrans building roof top as Capt. Kristian Cavada provides line of sight of the drone in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy climbs the ladder to the roof top of the Caltrans building as Capt. Kristian Cavada radios they have a call in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy, right pilots the DJI M30T drone as Capt. Kristian Cavada provides line of sight of the drone from Caltrans building roof top in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Eric Sherwin, San Bernardino County Fire PIO stands at left. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
The light of San Bernardino County Fire Department DJI M30T drone prepares to land on top of he Caltrans building in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
The small green dots on top in the center of the photo is the San Bernardino County Fire Department’s DJI M30T drone investigating a 911 fire call in the Mills and Waterman Avenue area in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy, right pilots the DJI M30T drone as Capt. Kristian Cavada provides line of sight of the drone from the Caltrans building roof in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Eric Sherwin, San Bernardino County Fire PIO stands stands behind them. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy, left pilot prepares the controls as Capt. Kristian Cavada readies the DJI M30T drone for flight on the roof of the 12 story Caltrans building in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Show Caption1 of 13San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Robotics Program Manager Jeff Alexy pilots the DJI M30T drone as its view is on one of the three screens used to monitor flight, maps and calls on the Caltrans building roof in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
ExpandIn the last three months of 2024, the agency’s firefighters responded to 833 such calls in the city alone, Fire Department spokesman Eric Sherwin said, in a city that according to the latest in-the-field survey has roughly 1,000 homeless people, some who frequently set small outdoor fires to keep warm.
But this night, instead of sending a fire engine to lumber out to the area of the 215 Freeway between 2nd Street and Baseline Road, the dispatcher — as part of a 30-day pilot program to use resources more efficiently — contacted engineer Jeff Alexy and Capt. Kristian Cavada, who were stationed on the roof of the 12-story Caltrans building in downtown.
Alexy launched a drone, recognizable for its red and green blinking lights and white strobe, and that features high-definition and thermal-imaging cameras. With Cavada as its spotter, the aircraft soon arrived and performed a thorough search, all in 4 minutes and 33 seconds — about the time it would have taken the engine just to get there.
Firefighters were thus freed from a response that could have included a half-hour search, instead leaving them available for more critical calls.
“It worked great,” Alexy said. “We get on scene a heck of a lot faster than an engine company.”
The program started on Jan. 13. When the caller is able to identify a specific vehicle, building or brushy area that is afire, the engines are dispatched along with a drone, which can hit 40 mph. Otherwise, oftentimes, one of four drones goes it alone. A drone’s travel time is measured in seconds, not minutes.
San Bernardino and many other fire departments use drones to provide ground units with an aerial view of a fire and to find lost hikers and drowning victims, among other tasks. Sherwin said the county is one of few agencies he knows of that uses drones as first responders.
“The early indications show that we have found yet another tool in the firefighting arsenal,” Sherwin said.
Sherwin noted the success of the Chula Vista Police Department with what it calls its Drone as First Responder program. In 2018, police there began sending drones ahead of officers to reports of crimes in progress, fires, traffic collisions and reports of dangerous people, the department’s website says.
“DFR allows a trained incident commander to ‘virtually’ arrive on scene first, sometimes minutes before officers are in harm’s way,” the website says.
Brea police plan to launch a similar program in May, said Lt. Chris Haddad, a department spokesman, with drones also assisting the Fire Department.
San Bernardino County Fire has used drones since 2018. The new instant-response program is part of Fire Chief Dan Munsey’s commitment to new uses of technology to solve old problems, Sherwin said. Money has been secured to purchase separate robots that can search a collapsed building and below-ground areas. And the Fire Department has applied for a grant that would pay for a submersible robot that could search rivers and lakes.
Alexy and Cavada bundle up against the chill while working from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. as the city lights twinkle below.
Alexy holds a gaming-style controller featuring a small video screen with joysticks on either side. A larger monitor sits on a table and displays high-definition video images and readouts of flight data.
The 20-pound, $15,000 drone lifts off from a small mat that is illuminated by orange light.
The only limits to the drone are its battery life — 20 to 30 minutes — and Federal Aviation Administration rule that says the pilot must be able to see the drone at all times. That comes out to 6 square miles.
“We’re measuring our (arrival) responses literally in seconds,” Sherwin said. “We don’t have the traffic. We don’t have to drive around buildings. We go right over them.”
The drone showed its versatility on Jan. 13 when a fire broke out in a business at G and Congress streets. Again responding to a report of an unknown type fire, the drone’s heat sensor detected flames inside the structure that couldn’t initially be seen from the outside.
Fire engines are equipped with tablets that receive the drone’s video feed. Information from the drone gave the rig’s captain a more accurate assessment of what awaited him two minutes before he arrived: a fire that ultimately would take dozens of firefighters two hours to control.
“He’s already getting to figure out what his game plan is versus showing up on scene and then having to walk around it and then coming up with the game plan,” Alexy said.
“Every minute counts,” Sherwin added.
Perhaps the best endorsement comes from the engine crews themselves. Alexy said many, having witnessed the drone’s effectiveness, now ask for it to be launched as the engines roll out of the station, just as officers sometimes request support from police helicopters.
“They’re loving it,” Alexy said.
When the drone arrives, Alexy and Cavada will evaluate whether fire engines will be needed to put out the flames. In some cases, such as during a recent drone response to what turned out to be a fire burning safely in a pit surrounded by a half dozen people, no intervention was necessary.
But in other instances, where someone has lit a warming or cooking fire that is burning too close to a building, the drone crew will turn on the aircraft’s public-address system and spotlight to give instructions from 200 feet in the air.
“They might think, ‘Is this God telling us to put the fire out?’ ” Alexy said.
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