{"id":405057,"date":"2026-07-20T08:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405057\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T08:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:36:13","slug":"cal-fire-tests-autonomous-drones-to-bolster-wildfire-operations-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405057\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal Fire tests autonomous drones to bolster wildfire operations in California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-19-235457-e1784530662983-300x169.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-image-1222950\" alt=\"\"   loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VIDEO\/PHOTOS: As California\u2019s fire season stretches nearly year-round, Cal Fire is testing a new tool that could help firefighters attack wildfires.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, July 15, Cal Fire partnered with a third-party nonprofit called FireWERX and a team of engineers to field test fully autonomous drones, which are being built by Seneca.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deputy Chief Jack Worden of Cal Fire\u2019s Fire Innovation Unit said the goal is to help firefighters who often battle flames with backpack pumps and hand tools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c(Firefighters) go out there with the backpack pumps and the brooms and the shovels and they can put it out really fast,\u201d Worden said. \u201cThe Fire Innovation Unit is trying to force multiply that. Take some of the weight off their backs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The drones fly in packs of five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each drone weighs about 400 pounds and is built out of carbon fiber.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One drone can carry roughly 20 gallons of water and when combined with the others can turn into about 500 to 1,000 gallons of foam when mixed with firefighting concentrate.<\/p>\n<p>KMPH-TV FOX 26 Visalia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIDEO\/PHOTOS: As California\u2019s fire season stretches nearly year-round, Cal Fire is testing a new tool that could help&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,162446,15102],"class_list":["post-405057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-fire-technology-news","tag-wildland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}