The Barbados Fire Service (BFS) is now better equipped to fight the most difficult blazes.
It not only received a donation of four drones on Wednesday but some fire officers are participating in an 18-month training exercise aimed at assessing the correlation between climate change and wildfires in Barbados.
During a presentation ceremony at the Centre for Biosecurity Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard said that advancements in technology have helped officers carry out their duties more effectively and precisely.
“We have introduced drone technology, AI (artificial intelligence) and all sorts of information technology into the industry to improve it and keep our people safe,” he said.
The fire chief said the BFS used drone technology to determine thermal layering in a particular space; at the fire at the Mangrove Landfill in St Thomas a few years ago to analyse what was happening and make critical decisions; in the Port of Bridgetown to manage a hazmat incident; and for a bond fire at Brandons, St Michael.
Maynard explained that drones gave a 360 assessment of fires, which made it easier to develop effective strategies.
As it relates to the training exercise, it is part of a wider research project being undertaken by The Centre for Biosecurity Studies and is being funded by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility-Segregated Portfolio Company (CCRIF-SPC). The name of the study is Climate and Wildfires in Barbados.
Director for the Centre for Biosecurity Studies Dr Kirk Douglas said the study looked at the influence of the climate on wildfire activity in Barbados.
He noted that the data provided by the BFS allowed them to pair it with climate data which revealed “useful insights” into the distribution of wildfires on the island.
“The bulk of the wildfires, almost 50 per cent, occur in two parishes – Christ Church and St Philip. [This is] largely due to population density and the influence of human behaviour. What we are seeking to do is demystify what these interrelationships look like and how we can come up with solutions to solve these problems,” he explained.
Douglas added that while the BFS was tracking the number of fires and when they occurred, data on the size of the blaze was needed as the size of a fire determined its climate impact.
“[That is] where the drones would come in, and take to the air to take an aerial view of the burn size area,” he said.
(SZB)
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