Lou Correa Presses Fire Chief About Mitigating ‘Drone Incursions’ That Hinder Disaster Response

4/2/2025

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) asked Kevin Fetterman, the Fire Division Chief at the Orange County Fire Authority, about dealing with drone incursions.

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00:00I would like to recognize Ranking Member Correa for five minutes for any questions he may have.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Fetterman, you oversee the Command and Emergency Planning

00:11Division of the largest fire agency in Orange County, nearly 2 million residents across 78

00:18fire stations. You have a lot of experience with search and rescue and planning missions.

00:24How do emerging technologies like drone technology help keep Orange County residents safe?

00:36Ranking Member Correa, thank you for the question. I appreciate the opportunity to answer it. Orange

00:41County Fire is fortunate under the leadership of Fire Chief Brian Fennessey to lean fairly

00:48to emerging technology. We see it as an important aspect of meeting the threats that we face.

00:56We utilize every opportunity to engage in emerging technology, such as AI cameras for

01:02fire detection. As you pointed out, we utilize a significant fleet of drones. We utilize them

01:10on the fire line to determine and look for hot spots, especially outside of the line. Those are

01:16areas of the fire that you might not be able to see from the ground, but using the aerial

01:22observation and gaining that situational awareness, you can find spots that could turn

01:26into a significant fire later, especially if there are spots in between the fire line.

01:32Identifying those spots before they flare up save countless lives, millions if not billions

01:39of dollars in damage. You mentioned 150 structures recently burned in Orange County.

01:47Boy, when those fires go, they really go quickly.

01:51Technology, emerging technology, private sector, public sector. Recently, Elon Musk attempted to

02:00fire 400 employees at DHS. Some of those employees were at the Department of Science and Technology

02:06Directorate, which is really in charge of R&D, figuring out better ways, keeping Americans safe.

02:13They were developing, testing, and evaluating tools to help firefighters navigate in dark,

02:19smoke-filled buildings, how to rescue trapped civilians, communicate with firefighters,

02:25first responders. Can you speak to the importance of making sure that kind of research and development

02:32is developed as quickly as possible? Yes, so certainly, I would say that the DHS science

02:39and technology is a critical aspect. We utilize that technology. We're leaning into firefighter

02:46tracking and identifying where our personnel are, and that's not an easy task. We have to

02:51leverage all available technology to do that. So, emerging technology and even the bigger support of

02:59FEMA programs like the National Fire Academy and the U.S. Fire Administration, those are all

03:04critical to the fire service. Those are the backbones of our leadership programs and our

03:10ability to educate and teach our new and upcoming fire service leaders. Mr. Fetterman, we're talking

03:17about the affirmative use of drones. What about the defensive side in emerging technologies? You just

03:24talked about what I would consider a knucklehead, a drone flying in an active emergency situation.

03:34I'd say these people have no common sense. I don't care how criminal you make it,

03:39they're going to do dumb things. So, I would imagine the emerging technologies that we can

03:43come up with to clear the field, so to speak, so you can do work is also an important part of the

03:49emerging technology. Yes, sir. So, seeing the report of the number of drone incursions on the

03:56fires in L.A. was frankly shocking, to see that number of drone incursions into a fire traffic

04:03area. And what that is, is you're talking about multiple aircrafts, 30 helicopters, six to eight

04:08fixed-wing air tankers, and so all operating to extinguish and mitigate the fire. And so,

04:14when you have drone incursions in there, we need to do, we, and ideally this committee and

04:19Congress altogether, needs to take swift action to mitigate those incursions into our fire traffic

04:27areas, and specifically the TFRs. It's an incredibly dangerous situation. Chief, in my last 35 seconds,

04:33we've established that drone technology, emerging technology, very important, very useful, also very

04:39dangerous. How can we in Congress help you do your job better? Well, certainly the emerging

04:50technology is critically important to us. Leaning into that, supporting legislation that protects

04:55the first responders, and as I mentioned, the National Fire Academy is our leadership backbone.

05:01That's where all of our leaders that bring that vision to engage in emerging technology

05:07come from. They're coming out of programs like the Executive Fire Officer Program, and certainly

05:13the support of all the grant programs, AFG, SAFER, SHISHGAP, UASI, those are the types of programs

05:21that help the first responders at the boots on the ground, boots in the dirt level, to continue

05:27to evolve. So, I'd encourage this group to continue to support those programs. Chief Fetterman, thank

05:33you for joining us today, and look forward to continue working with you. Thank you, sir.

05:36Mr. Chairman, I'm out of time, but before I do turn over my time, I'd like the unanimous consent

05:43to insert into a record an article from the GHS Science and Tech Directorate, dated November 6th

05:49of 23, titled, Picturing the Future of Firefighters, which describes how science and technology serves

05:56a crucial role in R&D and testing technologies alongside the private sector to help our

06:02firefighters and other first responders to respond safely to emergencies and save lives.

06:08Without objection. Thank you.

Lou Correa Presses Fire Chief About Mitigating ‘Drone Incursions’ That Hinder Disaster Response

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