AUBURN — It was Frank Roma’s love of Maine’s natural beauty that helped rescue a teenager who was trapped in a roiling river in Mechanic Falls on Tuesday.

Roma, the city’s fire chief, was at the Little Androscoggin River, assisting that town’s fire and rescue crews. When they puzzled over how to equip the teen with a life jacket, Roma offered up the “quad-copter” drone that he happened to bring to work that day and still had in his car.

“I talked to the incident commander and said, ‘I can fly a line out to this kid in no time, and we can haul him over a (personal flotation device),’ and he said, ‘Go ahead.'”

It was a lucky coincidence that allowed Roma’s drone to deliver a lightweight line to the stranded youth, nearly 100 feet away.

The department’s “line gun” that performs a similar function happened to be out of service that day, Roma said.

Once the boy plucked the line from the drone, he was able to reel in a life preserver in preparation for his water rescue.

Roma bought the apparatus about a year ago, he said, to help him capture the unique landscapes and seascapes that had drawn him to Maine. He moved here from Texas.

“Maine is an incredibly beautiful state that deserves to be photographed from all angles,” he said.

A framed aerial view photo of Portland’s Head Light shot by Roma’s drone graces his office.

The drone, or “unmanned aerial vehicle,” is equipped with a high-definition camera that can swivel full-circle and shoots still pictures as well as video. He can plug in a minitablet to use as his eyes in the air and to preserve the captured images in the tablet’s memory or live-stream the images elsewhere.

He had thought to bring his drone with him to the rescue scene Tuesday to possibly help secure the scene visually. It was only when he observed the situation that he seized on the idea of using the drone as a ferry service to carry lightweight rope. Afterward, the drone hovered above the scene, enabling crews to have an unobstructed view of how their water rescue operation was proceeding.

“The opportunity to have used it in a true emergency situation hadn’t presented itself” before, Roma said. “It would just be a matter of whether I happened to have it with me or not. But it all came together yesterday and it worked out well.

“Drones in the emergency services is kind of an emerging technology,” he said Wednesday, after demonstrating the machine’s capabilities behind Auburn Fire Department’s Central Station on Minot Avenue.

“A lot of departments are now starting to buy these and use them for search and rescue or reconnaissance, as well as arson investigations at scenes that are unsafe for investigators (to access in person). If you have a hazardous materials incident, you want to be able to send the drone down to look. It sends real-time images back to me as I’m operating so I see what the drone sees,” he said.

Some of the drones can be fitted with infrared cameras for use at night, he said. Some beach rescue operations employ heavy-duty drones that can carry life rings over ocean waters to drowning victims, he said.

No local emergency departments have departmental drones, including Auburn Fire Department, where funding is too tight to spring for the new gadgets, he said.

“We’re still trying to take care of the bare necessities of running a Fire Department,” he said. “I don’t quite have the excess funds to propose a drone.”

His drone cost roughly $1,000, but they range in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars, he said.

He figures, for now, emergency departments likely will have members of their crews (like Roma) who are willing to share their own drones. Eventually, departments are apt to invest in the technology, he said.

After news spread of Tuesday’s river rescue and the role his drone played, Roma said he got more than a half-dozen calls from emergency departments as far away as Colorado seeking information.

Some fire departments in major cities already have made the investment in drone technology, Roma said. Some major metropolitan police agencies use drones in hostage and standoff situations, he said.

Also in flux are restrictions on drone use.

Federal regulators have banned their use in restricted air space or over crowds of people. Although his drone is capable of reaching heights of roughly 1,000 feet, Roma said he’s not allowed to fly higher than 400 feet, and he must maintain visual contact with it at all times.

“It comes down to common sense,” he said.

Some drone use has gotten a bad rap recently, such as when a man flew his drone onto the White House lawn.

If used properly, it can be a great asset, he said.

“It takes a fair amount of time to become proficient at it,” he said.

And the technology is likely to change to keep pace with additional uses.

“We really are just on the cusp of what the capabilities of these devices will be,” he said.

Still, at the end of the day, he said, “It’s just another tool in the toolbox.”

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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