FIO 1840 - Drone Technology

1. Do you use drone technology

Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service (CFRS) do not currently have an operational drone asset within service.

2. How many drones do you have at your disposal?

CFRS do not currently have any internal drones, however upon request for a drone asset during operational incidents, Cheshire Police Drone Team can be requested to support. If Cheshire Police Drone Team is unavailable a request for neighbouring Fire and Rescue Services who have a drone can be requested. Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester FRS’ all have drone assets that could be requested for over the border assistance. CFRS can also request a drone asset through National Resilience.

3. Do you share the drones with other agencies

Yes, as above.

4. If you share the drones with other agencies, which agency takes priority in the event of a multi agency incident where there is a conflict of use.

The incident lead agency will remain responsible for Command and Control of the incident. Multi-agency partners adhere to the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) and work closely together during the incident using each agencies capabilities to ensure a safe and effective resolution.

5. What capital expenditure has been utilised on drone technology between 2017 – 2022

Approx 10k per annum cumulatively 

6. What is the annual revenue expenditure associated with maintaining your drone capability

Zero.

7. What arrangements do you have in place for crewing/operating the drones

As above a request will be made to Cheshire Police Drone Team, neighbouring Fire & Rescue Service or request through National Resilience.

8. Please provide operational statistics detailing the number of times the drone/s have been deployed between 2017 – 20022

During the time CFRS owned a drone asset it was only requested to 7 operational incidents

9. Please provide operational statistics detailing the types of deployment i.e. what was the drone used for.

The drone asset was used for x2 large building fires and a number of large grass fires. This asset supported the Command Team to gain a greater level of situational awareness. 

10. Do you have a documented policy on Drone provision and use (please supply a copy)

As there currently isn't an operational drone asset within Service, there isn't a live Policy to share