They joined the ranks of the Charente-Maritime firefighters in 2019, but this is the first time that Charlie and M300 have been out on reconnaissance missions after… an earthquake in the region. These two new elements are in fact drones which usually first assist engineers deployed on the ground during forest fires or searches for people. But for earthquakes, therefore, we were obviously very far from imagining using it one day in Metropolitan France. Because even if the earth shakes here regularly, the magnitude of the earthquake on Friday (then the aftershock on Saturday) was unprecedented this time.
Since Friday, Romain Marsaly and Olivier Renault have already provided a dozen hours of flight over La Laigne and Cram-Chaban, two towns affected. Each equipped with a joystick for the same aircraft, they are both remote pilots for the SDIS 17. The first is in charge of driving and the second directs the camera. “We’re here to help the chain of command with priority decisions on the various construction sites, and also help building experts who could not make their findings visually from the ground or on ladders. »
The images, whether video or photo, are then transmitted live to the operational center which then decides whether to send men and women on site to consolidate a structure, or even whether to evacuate it. . Also easy to handle in the rain or in the presence of gusts of up to 60 km/h, the drones have a range of more than half an hour and can carry many tools. “In addition to a thermal camera, you can put LED lighting as powerful as in a football stadium, a loudspeaker to give orders or instructions to civilians, and serve as a communication relay”, lists the remote pilot after landing the craft. It was able to fly over several buildings in the small town of Cram-Chaban where several chimneys, in particular, still threaten to fall.
