BP Drones Support BIFD at Bloedel Reserve Prescribed Burn

On Monday, August 25, four volunteers with the Bainbridge Prepares’ TechOps team deployed advanced drone and communications technologies to assist a joint wildfire training burn at the Bloedel Reserve. Our team supported the Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, and Bremerton fire departments, demonstrating integrated technology responses to potential wildfire emergencies on the island. 

This annual event presented a rare opportunity for local firefighters to gain hands-on wildfire management experience, important given that the risk of wildfire on the Island is increasing due to climate change. The prescribed burn also provided a number of environmental benefits to the Bloedel Reserve, including the reduction of invasive species and the promotion of native vegetation.

Program Enhancements

This was the second consecutive year that Bainbridge Prepares supported the Bloedel Reserve burn. For 2025, we were able to build on the collaboration and momentum gained from the previous year’s exercise in several critical areas:

• Integrated dispatching: With the support of BIFD, TechOps Air Operations (“AirOps”) was integrated into the dispatch systems of Kitsap 911 for the first time. Integrating our drone volunteers into the same systems used by public safety throughout the county will enable BIFD and other partner agencies to rapidly and seamlessly activate BP drone responses for future fires, water rescues, and other time-sensitive emergencies.

• For Bainbridge Island residents, the most visible sign of this integration is the brand new Drone 21 identifier on the PulsePoint app. As our team will be attached to BIFD during emergency responses, they may also be referenced as the “BIFD drone team” in BIFD’s public communications.

Bainbridge Prepares AirOps will show as “Drone 21” in PulsePoint when activated for emergencies in our community.

• Advanced drones: Compared to last year’s exercise, the drones used by the team in 2025 had four times the thermal resolution and a number of other advanced capabilities. This enabled BP volunteers to monitor fire progress with extremely fine detail and alert firefighters on the ground to hotspots in the brush. The state-of-the-art Matrice 30T drone used by the team was funded through generous grants from the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island and the Bainbridge Island Community Foundation.

The Bainbridge Prepares M30T drone takes off to support firefighters during the burn. The drone carries advanced sensors designed to support first responders.

• Drones were also used to map fire acreage for the incident commanders, and confirm that there were no residual hazards at the end of the exercise.

The use of high-resolution thermal imaging allowed Bainbridge Prepares’ drones to map and monitor fire progress and support firefighter safety during the burn.

• Drone coordination: A complex emergency may require the use of more than one drone at a time. During this burn, our team was able to demonstrate the simultaneous use of multiple drones, practicing coordinated use of the airspace and communications between pilots and fire incident command. Safety protocols and observers were in place to ensure drone operations had no impact on any other aircraft over Bainbridge Island.

• Advanced connectivity: As in many parts of Bainbridge Island, cellular connectivity at Bloedel is limited, especially in the more remote parts of the reserve. To solve this challenge, the TechOps team deployed a portable Starlink Mini satellite communications kit. This new tool enabled firefighting leadership to continually monitor weather conditions before and during the burn and to stay aware of other emergencies happening on Bainbridge Island and in surrounding communities during the exercise.

• Community awareness: Many people in the Bainbridge Island community are already used to checking PulsePoint and getting Nixle alerts for information on nearby emergencies. But following the devastating fires in Los Angeles in January of this year, another app, Watch Duty, has become a go-to tool for millions of people to get up-to-the-minute information on wildfires throughout the western United States. TechOps worked to ensure that the Bloedel Reserve burn was visible on Watch Duty prior to the start of the exercise.

To increase public awareness, TechOps ensured that the prescribed burn was visible in Watch Duty.

Drone as First Responder

During the Bloedel burn, a 911 call came in about odor smoke odor in the vicinity of Highway 305 on the north end of the island, not too far from where the burn was occuring. BIFD firefighters were dispatched to the call, and they requested that AirOps launch a drone from Bloedel to investigate. The drone was able to confirm rapidly that the reported smoke was from the Bloedel Reserve exercise and did not represent a new fire or community hazard. The quick response by a drone freed up the responding fire engines for other emergencies in the community.

The use of drones to provide “first on scene” information is known as Drone as First Responder (DFR) in the emergency services community.  BIFD and Bainbridge Prepares continue to look at the evolution of this technology across the country and consider guidance from the FAA to see how DFR may be integrated on the island in the future, consistent with community needs and values. 

The Power of Partnership

Our participation in this exercise is another example of the partnership among Bainbridge Prepares, BIFD, and the City of Bainbridge Island (COBI). As our community faces changing risks from fires, storms, and other hazards, the innovative use of technology is one key element in our community’s strategy to adapt to those challenges. Exercises like this one help ensure our technology volunteers are properly trained, integrated, and equipped to support community safety when seconds matter.  

Questions? Interested In Volunteering?

TechOps will be a part of the Bainbridge Island annual Day of Preparedness event at Fire Station 21 on September 20. Our volunteers will be there to answer your questions about drones, emergency communications, solar power during disasters, the use of personal radios, and/or how to prepare your family’s communications plan. Feel free to stop by our table and ask us questions! If you’re into any sort of technology (drones, networks, software, cybersecurity, ham radio, sustainable energy) and are wanting to give back to the COBI community during disasters, we’d love to get you signed up.

Featured image: Firefighters from Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, and Bremerton performing the prescribed burn