Drones flying through Watch and Act zones of Esperance fires yesterday hindered efforts to battle out-of-control blazes and prevented up to 100,000 litres of water being dropped by aerial support.
A white and a black drone was sighted flying through the Howick Watch and Act area yesterday at about 4.20pm, seriously risking the safety of the eight aerial support air crafts and forcing them to land.
Incident control officer Danny Mosconi said the air crafts remained grounded for two to three hours and the delay had a “significant impact” on crews who were already under serious pressure to battle the fires.
“Once aerial support and water bombers leave the area … this then poses a risk of fires gaining intensity, which in this case it did,” he said.
“We’ve been working since that incident to contain those fires.”