By Jesse Bunch
The Philadelphia Inquirer
TRENTON, N.J. — As puzzling drone sightings continue across New Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs, Garden State fire officials are briefing local fire departments on how to handle the potential downing of an unmanned aircraft.
The New Jersey Division of Fire Safety issued a list of safety guidelines for the scenario to fire departments across the state last week, as the public frenzy over the swell of reported drone sightings in the region began hitting its stride.
Larry Fox, deputy chief of the Mount Laurel Fire Department, said Monday that his department received the alert electronically through the fire safety division’s threat task force on Dec. 12.
There haven’t been any verified reports of large drone crashes in the state, but that doesn’t mean officials aren’t warning fire crews about the possibility.
According to Fox, the guidelines say fire crews should not approach a downed drone. Crews were advised to respond wearing protective gear, set up a safety perimeter of more than 300 feet, and contact a host of first responders immediately, Fox said. That includes local police, hazmat crews, the bomb squad, and the FBI.
Officials also told fire departments that, out of an abundance of caution, crews should prepare for the possibility of wreckage containing hazardous materials, Fox said.
The New Jersey Division of Fire Safety did not return requests for comment. It was unclear how many fire departments were given the guidelines.
Fox said that this type of direction was unique for his Burlington County fire department.
But similar to the inquiring public, Fox did not have any answers to questions about the nature of the drone phenomena.
“We don’t know what these drones are, or where they’re coming from, or what they’re carrying or not carrying,” Fox said.
The public frenzy over the large number of reports of unmanned aircraft sighted across the region has only grown since mid-November.
Those sightings included areas near a military and research facility, critical infrastructure such as water reservoirs and electrical transmission lines, and near President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club.
The spectacle has also unfolded in the skies over residential communities, including in a handful in suburbs like Delaware County and leading to at least 13 sightings in New Jersey this weekend.
Social media users are taking to platforms with videos and photos of well-lit, unmanned vehicles hovering seemingly at random. Many of the craft have been reported to be significantly larger than typical hobby drones.
Senior government officials have since dispelled rumors that the drones are a threat to public safety or of a foreign origin. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who said Monday that drone-detecting devices have found “little to no evidence” of anything nefarious or threatening, wrote a letter to President Joe Biden last week, expressing “growing concern” about the drones and seeking federal help “to fully understand what is behind this activity.”
But as reports of sightings persist, other leaders have called on the federal government to offer the public more information or to intervene. On Truth Social, Trump suggested to “Shoot them down!!!” (Shooting any aircraft, including a drone, is illegal and a safety hazard, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.)
The statewide drone crash protocol warning was issued to Fox’s South Jersey fire department the same day a drone reportedly crashed in a residential area of Pequannock Township in Morris County.
But law enforcement confirmed to local media that the downed drone appeared to be a hobby or toy-type drone, not a “large commercial or military drone.” Another report of a drone downing in Somerset County, N.J., yielded no findings.
Fox said that in addition to responding with protective equipment, officials told the fire department to use air monitoring tools to take readings for possible hazardous materials.
“This is a unique situation,” Fox said, “because there’s so much concern about these unmanned aerial vehicles in the public.”
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