New role for flame-throwing drones in China

Blue Sky Rescue is well known to Asia Pacific Fire magazine for search and rescue. This new intuitive is helping villagers in Zhong county near the city of Chongqing. A drone has been converted into a flying flamethrower in central China in a fiery campaign to eradicate more than 100 wasp nests.

Blue Sky Rescue, has teamed up with villagers in Zhong county. They raised 80,000 yuan ($16,225) to buy a drone and equip it with a petrol tank and an arm-length nozzle.

Videos released by Blue Sky show a recent mission by the six-rotor drone.

It hovers above a hive as large as a suitcase before swooping down.

The drone operator flips the ignition switch, and the drone spits bursts of fire onto the hive.

“The burning ashes of the wasp’s nest gradually peeled off and fell, and the surrounding residents applauded and praised the rescue team,” said an article on a local news app run by state-owned Chongqing TV.

The article quotes a resident thanking Blue Sky for helping the village: “Now we don’t have to worry about being stung by a wasp.”

Blue Sky said it had destroyed 11 hives.

There are more than 100 to go.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-13/flamethrower-drone-used-to-burn-wasp-nests-in-central-china/12979134