As the nearly 800-acre wildfire continues to burn through Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest, it is an all-hands-on-deck situation. People are fighting this Wyoming wildlife from all sides, including from the air. However, aerial efforts to fight the fire have stalled, not due to any technical difficulty or improvement with the fire. No, instead, the Wyoming wildlife efforts halted because someone decided to fly a drone in the area.
Wyoming Wildlife Efforts Halted Because Of A Drone
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You know, I think drones are really cool. My husband and I have even used some ourselves to capture some incredible vacation footage. However, the more I read about people messing with them, the more irksome they become to me. You have people flying them near airports, causing disruptions. Then you have people flying them in national parks, scaring off the precious wildlife. Now, you have people trying to get good views of this unfortunate natural disaster. Additionally, in the process, halting the aid that was coming to them.
The aerial efforts that were called in to fight the Wyoming wildfire were grounded on Saturday. This is due to the drone they spotted flying over the fire. While someone was attempting to get a good view of the destruction, they halted operations that were making water drops on the quickly burning forest. Cowboy State Daily shares that those water drops, along with aerial scouting, were being used to combat what has now been named the Horse Fire. They share that "When it was first reported Friday, the fire was estimated at about 40 acres in size, burning about 10 miles west of Merna, Wyoming, and 10 miles north of McDoughal Gap in Sublette County."
However, by Saturday, the fire had spread to an alarming 770 acres. Some of the aircraft dropping water include Type 1 helicopters, each of which carries 700 gallons of water at a time. Imagine that much water being halted from being dropped on a fire simply because someone flew their drone too close to the area. Such a stupid reason for the Wyoming wildfire efforts to be halted.
