Tennessee Roll Call
Podcast dedicated to those in first response or interested.
Tennessee Roll Call
EMA Takes Flight
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Welcome back to a special edition of Tennessee Roll Call. I've got anime with me today. Wade Evans, Brandon Gunn. Thank y'all guys for joining us here today. Yes, sir. It is a beautiful day. It is out here in Fraser McEwan Park in Tullahoma. It is. First of all, let's get some introductions. Brandon, tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_02So I started in the volunteer fire service in Coffee County in 2002 with Hillsborough Fire Department. Did a short stint there as chief for about five or six years. Went to work for the city of Manchester, spent three years there, and then I moved to the Air Force Base Fire Department and still there. Worked for emergency management on my days off from the fire department.
SPEAKER_03So how'd you end up in EMA?
SPEAKER_02So when I worked at Manchester, I I volunteered a lot through the office, helped taught hazmat classes and stuff like that under Director Lindley. In 2017, opportunity opened up to work for part-time. So I took it. Oh Alan.
SPEAKER_03Oh Alan Linley, we sure do miss him, don't we? We yes. Yes. Y'all hesitated on that. I might have to send this to Alan, let him know that y'all hesitated on that. Well you tell us about yourself a little bit, buddy.
SPEAKER_00So like him, I was I started out on the volunteer side. Um I actually started in Franklin County. Um stayed over there for a few years. Um got on a Telehoma Fire in 2012. Um I stayed there for about 12 years. Um went to my last uh last two years at Tullahoma, I went EMS and fire full-time. So I worked 24 on 24 EMS and then was off for 24. Um this job came open as the deputy director at EMA about four and a half years ago. Um I decided that a change may be good. Um I wanted to see kind of more of the preparedness side. Um I transferred over. Um since then I I left EMS and fire to come to EMA. Been here about four and a half years. Back in December, I became the interim director when um Alan retired in December. Um and as of right now, still the interim director. Oh, they're gonna be able to fill that spot sometime soon or they are waiting until the budget passes and which it did, I believe, didn't it? Or okay, we're waiting on the mayor's decision. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So still a little bit down there. Yeah, but uh in Tallahoma, we just had that whole uh uh budget thing as well, and that's always a fun time. So it definitely passed. Yeah, it did. It it definitely passed from what I understand. That's that's that's great. Uh guys, a lot of people they know what fire is and what they do and police and all like it. I don't know of a lot of people that know exactly what EMA does. Can y'all kind of describe that for us?
SPEAKER_00So EMA is kind of the go-between of your local, state, and federal agencies. So if anybody local needs anything from the state level, um we're the go-between. Um and federal grants and stuff, we're also the go-between for it. Um, we also do preparedness plans for the county, which includes both the city plans also. Um we do a lot of things that just need to be done for the county. Like one thing we're we're gonna go over today is the drones. Um we got one and it's uh asset to the whole county, um, not just our agency, um, but we use it in hazmat. Um our office is also over all the hazmat for the county. Um we do um emergency operations plans for the whole county along with the hazard mitigation.
SPEAKER_03So y'all are y'all are definitely are uh uh what we have to have during the really important times.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so and and with that we have several specialized teams that we do. Uh we're like Wade said, charge the hazmat for the whole county. So we actually have uh two fully stocked hazmat trailers at our office anytime there's a commercial vehicle wreck on the interstate, 95% of the time there's something leaking, right? So whether it's diesel fuel, uh anti-freeze motor oil, or so you work close with the fire departments.
SPEAKER_03We do, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So under back in 2005-ish range, uh Tellahoma Fire, Manchester Fire, and EMA come together uh when we were still getting a lot of uh homeland security money. They bought two trucks, two trailers, uh, fully outfitted them. Uh all three departments came together, made a team for District 6, which is Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, Coffee, Bedford. Um, and we responded to any hazardous material response in those six counties if requested. Awesome. So we deployed quite a bit. Uh we went to Mont Eagle several times. Uh Winchester. Winchester, several times. Who all do y'all serve? So we let's say we cover the has well now that we primarily for Coffee County, but we will still take our stuff and go to the six counties if needed. It's a mutual aid. It's a mutual aid request.
SPEAKER_03And so it's just the six neighboring counties?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Okay. I mean, if we get requested outside of that, we're probably gonna go. Oh yeah. Um, because Tennessee is under a mutual aid agreement uh statewide, so um we're kind of like the fire department. If we get requested, we're gonna go. Um but we also have to make sure that we keep our county covered also.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we also uh have a uh Dart team, a disaster animal response team. We've got a mobile corral set up on a trailer, so Lord help we have a semi-truck calling livestock rollover on Interstate. We can deploy a mobile pin.
SPEAKER_03Really? No, I I didn't even think about that. No, it's called the Dart Team. Dart Team. Tell us a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_02So that was in a cooperation with emergency management UT Ag extension uh and the animal controls in the county. Uh we've the way we've set this team up, we've kind of adapted adapted the six district concept to this team. So we have a resource list. Every um county has a little bit of equipment because again, it's kind of the hazmat. Nobody can afford to do it all on their own. Right. So we if it's a big disaster, it could be a tornado. Whatever. We can mobilize, take our stuff there, they bring their stuff here. Um kind of deal. We let the uh animal controls deal with a small animal portion, then ag extension and is primary for farm animals. Uh rescue squad, they've also got some uh large animal rescue equipment that we can call on if we needed. You know, if we've got a horse or a cow stuck in a pond, they've got lifting slings that they can get them out with.
SPEAKER_03So never would have thought of that in a hundred years. Even though that not too long ago in Tellahoma, we had a uh a chicken truck that uh something happened with it, and all of a sudden North Jackson Street was surrounded by chickens, some dead, some alive, and uh we just had to go by and just pick them up individually. And um but I I I can imagine I don't think I've ever thought of having livestock get into a wreck and having to have them corraled and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00That's that's good to know. So also we have a great partnership with private side people. Um that's one real big thing about our job is partnerships. We got to make these connections before a disaster happens. Um, like in the the animal response, we work real close with a lot of local vets. Um, we have the state vet on speed dial so we can get them get them help if they need help, plus we can get them crowd up, hold them till we can find a safe place to carry them until we can find the right owners for them.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome. Didn't know I was even going to talk about that today, but that that's cool. I'm I'm love I love that y'all are able to do that. What else do y'all do? Or does that pretty much sum it up? Or I'm sure y'all probably like a Swiss Army knife. You have to do just a little bit everything.
SPEAKER_02So you you look at EMA is basically the logistics part of emergency management. We either have it or we know where to get it. And that's where the partnership is. That's where the partnership is. We don't have it. Well, we know these people over here that do. We house uh several state health assets uh that through COVID they was allowed to buy. We've got a uh three-room mobile clinic that it's on a trailer that it folds out. You know, if something that's happened to the health department to go down, we can deploy that asset and they can still see patients until it gets back online.
SPEAKER_00That's a million-dollar asset that we get to house because of our partnership with State Health. Awesome, guys.
SPEAKER_02We've got mobile generator, light towers, uh portable cooling fans. We've got a lot of stuff that the state has housed here that's at our disposal.
SPEAKER_03That well, thank y'all so much for what you do. How many is in y'all's uh team? Right now we have two.
SPEAKER_00So y'all are the whole DNA? We had four originally, two full-time, two part-time. Um whether we had one that left and that never got replaced, and then when our director retired, we still haven't got that fixed. So hopefully we can get our office building back up this year and get back on the track.
SPEAKER_03Huge responsibility for two people. Got a lot on your backs. It is. That is. Well, today we're going to talk a little bit more about the drone pro uh the drone that y'all just recently got. Now, I don't know if a lot of people know that drones are being used more and more in first responder uh aids because back in the day, if you needed anything aerial done, you had to have a helicopter, you had to have a pilot, and I think you even had to have somebody in there with the pilot. Uh, and that so obviously small municipalities or even micro municipalities uh couldn't afford it. So we are leaning more towards drones uh across the nation. Can you tell us how drones better help you and your job?
SPEAKER_00So the again with hazmat, um it it allows us to go see a situation on a screen versus sending personnel downrange and not knowing what we're dealing with. Um so we can stay a mile back from it and send some send eyes in the sky down there, figure out what we have. Um also with our job, we didn't really talk about, but if we have a tornado come through, we're we're over getting all your data the damage assessment done afterwards to where we can get funding back from the state for the the county level plus the city level plus the personal level. Um so we can go out and fly a damage track and take video and picture footage, and then that gives the state agency a better idea of what kind of damage we've had. Um we also have uh made an MOU with all the public safety in the county um saying, hey, if you need us, call us um for a missing person. Um we've also assisted with uh some agencies on search warrants. Um anything that we can do to help, um, because safety is our number one goal. Um having eyes in the sky on a lot of situations is very safe for the state. Um a lot of people are like, well, they're gonna spy on us. We do not use our drone to spy. Um the only time we use it is in the event of an emergency.
SPEAKER_02I mean, we've we've had it, we picked it up, what, the Thursday at Bonnaroo? Yeah, and we've done had one call out with it already last week. Um in in an hazmat situation, it's invaluable. Um hazmat's a slow process anyway, but if we've got one person with the drone watching what goes on, that lets our other guys be worried about other stuff. Right. Trying to speed the process up. If they're not, if they're not physically having to go down range, they're getting suited up, getting ready to deal with the emergency instead of so you got the safety aspect of it. We've got the safety aspect.
SPEAKER_03You've got uh being able to see better than we can see right here on this level. How far does this drone go out?
SPEAKER_00So when we get all the the software updates done, it should be about seven miles or fly from the controller.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Um right now our max has been about two miles that we've pushed it. Um but we could probably get a little bit more, it just depends on your signal strength. Um another thing that I did bring up is on the fire side. Um we've also made an MOU with all your fire departments. Um the drone that we got now is thermal capable, so we can come out to a big structure fire, especially if we have a more of a commercial involved building. We can see hot spots in the roof that may keep somebody from going in there and getting hurt. Wow. I mean it goes back to the safety. Um, and that's our number one goal is um everybody's gonna go home when we get done. Um no matter what we're doing in the county, whether it be anything from a tornado damage, fire, for assistant PD.
SPEAKER_03And you really you can't put a you can't put a price on that. I mean it but obviously there is, so this was a very expensive uh piece of equipment, but very, very useful. Yes. Uh what kind of drone is it? It's a SkyTeo X10. And from what I understand, those are some of the best drones you can get. They are.
SPEAKER_00Um what we did is it it was about a three-year process. Um we myself and Brandon went and got our Part 107. Um, we had some smaller DGI stuff. Um, the government put down a mandate that said, hey, these can't be fly flown for public safety anymore. Um so we started doing our research. Um we spent probably about a year doing research. Um there's a list out that's called the Blue List. Um, we got on that list, we found um all the drones that fit into the category that we needed, um, and then we just researched them. Um we had Scottio come down and do a demo for us. Um we talked to our state agencies, uh, TBI flies the exact same drone, um THP flies the exact same drone, they were all happy, Tima flies the exact same drone, everybody was happy with it, um, so that's why we went with it. Um capabilities are amazing on it, uh, and it fits our needs well for the county. Now you mentioned part 107. Can you explain what that is? So the 107 is your basically uh unmanned aircraft license in through the state. Um we took a class, um, you can just challenge the test. Um it it goes from everything from airspaces, um, different airspaces filing flight plans. Um on the public safety side, you really don't have to file that flight plan. Um they requested if it's a a flight that you know you're gonna be doing. Um emergency situations you don't have to fly it or file that flight plan.
SPEAKER_03Um so that this is this is a pilot's license for an unmanned aircraft. Because so we're not just sending people out there with a remote control and saying, okay, fly this and do something. You actually have to have a certification.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03How how hard was the certification?
SPEAKER_02It wasn't a fun test. I I would not really want to repeat it. No.
SPEAKER_03So if you were y'all interested in flying, or is this just something y'all wanted to use for well we had we had had the drones before.
SPEAKER_02Um we found this class at the Tennessee Fire and Codes Academy that it was a prep course for the taking a test. Uh and we knew that we wanted to go down the path of getting this new drone and being more productive with the drone program. So we went to the class first, got all that lined up, then we started the process of trying to get the drone. Uh so we'd be ready to go day one when whenever it showed up.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. And now y'all have it, and now we're here, and I think that we are a lot safer and better off that you have it. And I think like like you said, MOU, now what does MOU mean? Um MMO of understanding.
SPEAKER_02MMO of understanding. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So that's just a uh a backup uh that you can back up other agencies.
SPEAKER_02You know, if if Telehoma PD wants it for flying a crime scene, uh we've got mapping software that we can map out a crime scene and actually place a weapon wherever it was found.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um and we we also have with our government agencies, we can get requests other agencies, um TBI or other things through Tima that has other software that will tie with our drone and you can basically virtually walk through a grime scene.
SPEAKER_03Well, now the reason why we are outside today and not in a nice little comfy studio is because y'all are generous enough generous enough to show us the drone. Uh not getting too much into it, but just letting everybody see what it looks like, see it on takeoff, maybe see the screen, and just give people a little bit more of an understanding of what a drone looks like and what it can do. Are you are you ready to show us? Yes, sir. All right, let's go do that. Alright, we're set up here at Fraser McEwen Park. It's a beautiful day, just a few clouds in the sky, and we're gonna let Wade and Brandon show us a little bit about the what is this called the Scatio X10.
SPEAKER_00SCATIO X10. So with the SCATIO, it comes with battery three batteries, um, extra chargers. So the camera on it has a wide lens, uh narrow lens, and it's also got thermal capabilities on the camera. The drone itself is also got an attachable spotlight to it that we can put on it. It's also got an attachable speaker, and then we have what's called night sense. We can fly it at night, and we can keep the obstacle avoidance um intact with that IR software that comes with it. Um the controller comes already with a phone in it. Um, everything is made in the USA, that's why it's on the blue list. Um the capabilities are kind of out there of what you can do. Um in the public safety world, um, if we're flying down to a scene that we're trying to throw some light, we can, like I said, put that attachment, light attachment on it. If we're flying it down to a hazmat scene and we've got people down there, we can put the speaker on it, and we can actually talk to people that's in the in the hazard still and tell them what to do to make them as safe as possible. What you got, Brenda?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean it it's very nice asset uh for the county and the citizens of Coffee County and the two cities. The the capabilities, just the fact of being able, we can fly in adverse weather, we can fly in rain. I mean, we're not we're gonna try that unless we have to, obviously. Uh the thermal is a big deal, uh, obviously for the fire scenes, if you've got missing persons, uh, like we talked about on the uh about the dart team earlier. If we had wild animals or farm animals running loose, we could use thermal to find them, especially after dark, but we wouldn't be able to see unless it was daytime. Uh I mean the possibilities of this thing is limitless. Uh, it is a tremendous asset to this county to have it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, can you show us how you fire it up? I can.
SPEAKER_00You wanna sit there on? Yep. That's gonna be our current this is our regular camera that's off the front. This is gonna be our thermal, and then we also have a map that we can pull up and look at. So we're just gonna take it up. It goes up, it's gonna spin. So it's calibrating.
SPEAKER_03So if somebody was on top of that school right now, we'd be able to sing them where we wouldn't be able to sing them down here.
SPEAKER_01And I can zoom in. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03So if you're thinking about somebody that's like off in the falls or something, that you'd be able to zoom in that quickly or that closely. Yeah. So if someone was giving you like hand signals right there to think, you know, you can kind of tell what they would want or what they would need. Yeah. From even that high up in the air.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and I'm about 200 foot right now.
SPEAKER_01Um, with our license, we can run up to 400 foot. There's the mall. I can see the roof on the mall.
SPEAKER_03From all the way over here, we're still above the high school.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So if somebody was on the mall, I could go up here and I could see it. There's the airport, but you can read avionics on the side of that building.
SPEAKER_03That's at the airport, and we are still got the drone positioned above the high school. So this has countless uses when you think about public safety. And this is now available to us here in Coffee County.
SPEAKER_01That's 1,400 feet away from us. Let's go to thermal. We're getting my bald spot. There's the thermal.
SPEAKER_03Oh, it's hot. Yeah. Look at that pavement.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was trying to go. Another neat asset to this, Rocky, is the fact that whenever we'll start it up, eventually we'll have a QR code. So you as a law enforcement officer or anybody else can QR code in on your cell phone and you can see what the pilot's seeing.
SPEAKER_03And we wouldn't be able to have we'll have to do what we're doing now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you could flip between thermal and regular image and not affect the pilot what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00And that's just us finishing up the software. This is again, we've had it less than two weeks, and we're just getting everything set up now.
SPEAKER_03Guys, thank y'all so much. Appreciate you having it. Oh, that no, this this is this is awesome. I mean, this is the way it's going, and we have this capability now here in Coffee County, and we're just all safe for it. So, Brandon Gunn, Wade Evans, thank y'all for what you do, and thank y'all for spending time with us today.