According to Tom's Hardware, citing a press release, the drones come with autonomy software that lets one pilot supervise all five. They can reach a starting fire in under 10 minutes from detection and, thanks to onboard sensors, operate at night and in hard-to-reach terrain.
"Our goal is to stop 90% of fires before they grow larger than 10 square feet," said Dan Munsey, chief of the county's fire protection district. He said the district worked with Seneca for more than a year to develop the system, which enables "autonomous rapid initial attack".
The price of the deal and the start date have not been published. US emergency agencies have used drones for years, but according to the report this is one of the first times an autonomous firefighting drone of this kind has entered service with a civilian agency.