Message to amateur drone operators from those fighting northeastern Minnesota wildfires

"If you fly in the fire area, we can't."

That's the blunt message from John Fish, Air Operations branch director in Ely, Minnesota.

Catching a glimpse of the area can be neat to see, but it can create a significant hazard.

"It could actually bring down an aircraft, and that's obviously something that's not acceptable," says Fish. "Also, it can actually cause us to set down the firefighting aircrafts. I certainly wouldn't want to be the person causing the firefighting effort to be paused or put on hold, and people lose property or God forbid lives."

What are they doing to prevent these actions?

"Another layer of protection that we use on wildland fire, to keep manned and unmanned aircraft out of the fire area, is putting up a temporary flight restriction," explains Fish. "A certain size and then up to a certain altitude to keep our folks safe."

Other potential hazards include causing collisions, injuries, and potential loss of life.

"You can imagine as that aircraft comes into that airspace, that's a potentially a huge danger for our folks," adds Fish. "And so, especially our manned aircraft where you've got aerial firefighters up there in the aircraft, it's a huge hazard. So we're trying to get folks to understand that is not the place to fly your drone."