[Courtesy of the National Fire Agency]
Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have been widely utilized for fire-fighting operations in South Korea's mountainous areas. Drones can also help rescuers save shipwrecked victims using their advanced aerial search functions.
The National Fire Agency (NFA) said in a statement that rescuers used drones to save two people lost in forested hills in Chungju some 110 kilometers (68 miles) southeast of Seoul on August 15. The drones helped rescuers find the lost people and guided them down the hills.
Drones are remotely controlled flying robots. Drones designed for rescue purposes are equipped with optical equipment such as a camera, radar, and thermal imaging sensors. Drones are widely used by South Korea's military and government organizations for monitoring and surveillance. Some drones are used to carry out structural safety checks of hard-to-reach places like the top of a chimney or struts built under a bridge.
"We will enhance our field crew's capabilities so that they can use drones more effectively in various disaster situations," the National Fire Agency's emergency rescue division director Bae Deok-gon was quoted as saying.
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