News that the fire department in Victoria has added drones is making its way around the province this week.
Here in Kelowna, Fire Chief Jeff Carlisle says a fire on Tuesday night almost lead to them calling one in.
"For example, we were at a container fire on Sexsmith (Tuesday night), and at one point in time we were considering asking the mounties to come and launch their drone so we could get an aerial shot, container fires cause us quite a bit of grief," he said.
"So we have that capability here, not necessarily within the Kelowna Fire Department, but we do have other protective service agencies that do have that," he said.
He says with the cost of the drones and the rapidly developing technology, it's also something he could picture being added, but definitely a few years down the road.
"Over the long term, I think the technology is evolving, and the utilization of these things. And I can see us losing similar things, particularly for wildland fires and that kind of stuff," he said.
He says if that were to happen, they'd look at partnering with organizations who have a similar interest.
"We would always look towards multi-use. Like if the RCMP's got one, and if we can set up an agreement with them. If they can't because of security, maybe we partner with some other department like West Kelowna," he said.
"With something like this, we could go into a joint venture, so we would try to do things as efficiently as we could."
The Chief says to his knowledge, the RCMP hasn't been asked for drone assistance in the past, but that his staff know it is an option for them going forward.
Victoria's fire department has trained four people to pilot its three drones.