Unmanned aerial vehicle technology in the process of early fire localization of buildings

The paper is focused on the application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the process of accurate and early source of fire localization during the firefighting operation inside buildings. UAVs in practice allow to use perspectives and insights that are not accessible to ground forces. The authors expect to provide an early localization of hidden center of enclosure fire using UAVs and compare how early detection of fire source could affect overall firefighting process. As a part of verification of this hypothesis a fire test was carried out in collaboration with fire department. Additionally, to the fire test, authors used numerical fire simulation of various scenarios according to experimental conditions. Results demonstrate the use of UAVs in terms of rescue forces and their overall contribution to safety related to firefighting and fire protection of buildings. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.