Drone discovers Waldburn near Altfinkenstein - fire brigade in continuous use!

Drone discovers Waldburn near Altfinkenstein - fire brigade in continuous use!

Today, September 9, 2025, the fire brigade was alerted due to smoke in the Altfinkenstein region. Hikers discovered the smoke between the Zwanzger Hof and the Mallestic Alm and informed the emergency services at 12:12 p.m. Several fire brigades, including the Finkenstein, Latschach and Faak on the lake fire brigades, were immediately mobilized to prevent the fire from spreading to larger forest areas.

An important step to localize the stove was the use of a drone by the Finkenstein fire brigade. This innovative technology allowed the emergency services to specifically locate the smoke and to coordinate the extinguishing work efficiently. The foot troops fought against the flames with extinguishing bags and special forest fire tools, which suffered several square meters of forest floor and root areas. The affected areas were carefully dug up and extinguished, while a thermal imaging camera was used to control the fire site. The Gödersdorf fire brigade also supported the measures with two tank vehicles.

Drones in use against forest fires

The use of drones to combat and early detection of forest fires has become more important in recent years. According to reports from MDR MDR The development of such urban technologies began at the end of 2017 as part of a mechatronic degree. The developers initially worked on electric vehicles before they got into the challenges of drone technology. An outstanding result of these efforts is a drone that is specially designed to recognize smoke signals in forests. This technique stands out through an automated scan of forest areas and enables precise identification of brand herds.

A pilot project carried out in Möhrendorf, Middle Franconia, illustrates the possibilities of these technologies. The drone used there scans large forest areas fully automated and sends live images directly to the fire control centers when smoke development is determined. In addition to smoke detection, these drones also work with highly developed AI-based systems that were trained from extensive data sets to minimize false alarms. These systems are designed to also recognize dust and fog in order to avoid unnecessary alarms that the volunteer fire departments could burden.

On the future of forest fire security

The advanced urban technology also draws targeted collaborations with institutions such as the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Code of Building Technology in order to further increase the efficiency of fire fighting. The systems used there should be even better against forest fires in the future and need continuous tests with real fires to optimize the technologies, especially with regard to the distinction between smoke and dust.

With the progressive use of these technologies, hope is associated with significantly reducing the number of forest fires and thus also preventing the destruction, as being recorded in Germany in 2022, over 3,000 hectares of forest. The endeavor that works on the innovative drones is also faced with the challenge of continuing to adapt the review of drone images to ensure the alarm and ensure that the protection of the environment has top priority.