Drone footage of wildfire response gets shared constantly, but the certification, gear, and nightly workflow behind that footage rarely make it into the headline. This is what actually goes into running a wildfire hotspot detection mission for a Candrone crew, from training requirements through to the map a wildfire service receives the next morning.
One fact up front: flying a drone into a disaster or emergency zone without authorization is illegal in Canada. Unregulated flights put manned aircraft operations and first responders at risk. Every Candrone wildfire mission runs under proper authorization and Transport Canada regulation, which is exactly why the training bar below exists.
Training: What It Takes Before a Crew Deploys
Solid piloting skills are the starting point, not the qualification. Before a pilot joins a Candrone wildfire crew, they work through a training list that covers far more than flight time:
- First Aid and Transportation Endorsement, covering foundational emergency care and safe transport.
- Fire weather understanding, including how conditions shift fire behaviour hour to hour.
- Effective radio communication, including how to call in a helicopter evacuation if a situation escalates.
- Basic fire suppression techniques, including pump and hose setup.
- Fire entrapment training, for scenarios where an escape route is compromised.
- Advanced RPAS Pilot Certificate, the core credential covered in Candrone's drone training and RPAS certification programs.
- ROC-A (Radio Operator Certificate, Aeronautical).
- SFOC application, required for any operation above 400 feet or beyond visual line of sight.
Building that list takes weeks and real budget, and the equipment side is just as involved. Beyond the drone platform itself, a deployment kit includes camping gear, generators, approved vehicles, fire suppression equipment, survival gear, PPE, and enough food supply to sustain a crew through a multi week deployment.
Operations: How a Nightly Hotspot Mission Runs
The Candrone crew flies the DJI Matrice 350 RTK paired with the Zenmuse H20T thermal camera. The Matrice 350 RTK's built in strobe lights are genuinely useful on nighttime hotspot missions, and portable LED lamps light the take off and landing zone so ground operations stay safe in low light. Hotspot missions run overnight into early morning, once ground temperature has cooled enough to give the thermal camera real contrast to work with.
The H20T's laser rangefinder is what makes hotspot marking precise: the crew aligns the thermal crosshair on the target and the rangefinder locks the exact position, rather than an estimated one. Missions run on automated waypoint mapping to guarantee full coverage of the project area, with the crew watching for hotspots throughout.
Every mission runs with a Pilot in Command and a Visual Observer working together, with the smart controller mirrored to a larger screen over HDMI for an extra set of eyes. A temperature alarm flags extremes in the scanned area, and filtering out readings below 0 degrees Celsius helps the true hotspots stand out. Even in summer, temperatures in northern B.C. can dip into single digits overnight, which works in the crew's favour for contrast.
Getting a clean read takes some tuning. Higher altitudes introduce atmospheric interference that can skew temperature readings, so terrain following is used to hold a consistent above ground level altitude across mountainous terrain. Hotspot temperatures typically read around 170 degrees Celsius at the source, dropping to roughly 100 degrees Celsius when read from 90 to 100 metres up. Detection does not require lab grade precision, it needs a clear qualitative difference between a hotspot and its surroundings.
A typical mission covers about 2 square kilometres, flown with 20 percent image overlap at roughly 7 metres per second. The flight path is automated, but hotspot identification stays a human call: when the PIC or VO spots one, the mission pauses for a close look, and the location gets marked and tied to a GPS coordinate for mapping.
Watch an overview of the DJI features built for first responders and public safety:
Emergency work runs on tight timelines, and the Matrice 350 RTK's rapid battery swap is where that matters most. Flight times with the H20T payload run close to 40 minutes, and a fast battery change keeps the aircraft in the air instead of on the ground between flights.
The Data: Turning Pinpoints Into a Usable Map
Capturing the pinpoints is only half the job. Wildfire services need that data in a specific, usable format, and off the shelf automated tools rarely fit the requirement exactly. Candrone's data processing team built a workflow in QGIS, a geospatial mapping platform, that exports the drone's pinpoints and turns them into the maps wildfire services actually need on the ground.
The Work: Standby, Deployment, and Why the Crew Does It
Emergency response work means being on standby around the clock, ready to deploy fast. Deployments can run several weeks in remote terrain with no reliable power or communications, and crews regularly deal with wildlife, downed trees, and roads that are simply not passable. It is demanding work, and the crews who do it consistently describe it as some of the most meaningful work on their resume.
If this kind of work interests you, Candrone's drone pilot network is open to applications. Apply here.
Equipment and Next Steps
See the full current lineup on the Drones for Wildfire Management page, including the DJI Matrice 350 RTK and Zenmuse H20T setup this crew flies. For equipment, training, or consulting questions, contact the Candrone team directly.
