High-altitude balloons help fight wildfires in Idaho

BOISE, Idaho — Fighting wildfires from 60,000 feet in the air. Firefighters have a new tool at their disposal, thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and NASA.

• High-altitude balloons are a new means of fighting fires.
• The U.S. Forest Service is working with NASA to deploy remote-controlled helium balloons that can hover high above fire scenes for days.

(Below is the transcript of the broadcast report.)

Is it a bird, a plane or a balloon? High-altitude balloons have been around for decades, but a new technology has caught the attention of the US Forest Service. Technology that makes electronics work at that altitude. They've now partnered with NASA to use remote-controlled helium balloons that can float high above fire scenes for days.

Sean Triplett works with a division of NIFC that is using this new technology here in Idaho. I asked Sean what happened before the balloons. “Before we used these high-altitude balloons this year, how did you locate these fires and vehicles? Just through voice communication. And now we have them in view? Yes. That's a huge visualization advantage.”

The Flight Radar 24 app on your phone shows all flights worldwide and here in the US. If you go to Idaho, specifically Valley County, you can see a plane and this round figure. When you touch it, it shows a high altitude balloon flying at 60,000 feet, sending information to the fire department on the ground.

“This year we started looking at potential opportunities to test the package and get it airborne over a fire. It just so happened that this happened here in Idaho, where some of these fires were being fueled. They launched from Baker City, it rose into the stratosphere and they were able to park it over an incident.”

A South Dakota company can remotely control the balloons; all the company needs to know is where to fly them.

“We give them targets like the Snag fire and they can put the balloon over it and they linger and stay over the fire. It doesn't stay in one place, it moves up and down to find current wind currents and stays in the area.”

The bottom line is that these balloons allow for better communication and visibility between firefighters on the ground, increasing safety and efficiency.