Month: July 2026

By Conor McGill

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    ROSEVILLE, California (KOVR) — What once required firefighters on the ground can now be done from the sky, and Roseville Fire says it’s only the beginning.

While drones have been part of the department’s toolbox since 2020, fire leaders are now looking to expand the program with a long-term vision of placing a drone at every fire station in the city. The goal is to launch drones to emergencies within moments, giving firefighters and police real-time aerial intelligence before crews arrive on scene.

Within about a minute of a request, firefighters can already have a drone airborne, streaming live video back to incident commanders.

“We can see if we’re starting to get thermal runaway, an incident that might be too dangerous to put people in,” said Roseville Fire Captain Jonathan Davidson. “We can start getting video and transmitting it down to people on the ground who need that intel.”

Davidson became the department’s first licensed drone pilot when Roseville Fire launched its drone program in 2020. Now, city leaders are looking at the next evolution of the technology.

“They want to put a drone on every single fire station in town,” Davidson said. “That drone can launch from the fire station, and there would be a person in the control center able to fly that drone and provide the aerial reconnaissance.”

The expanded system would allow drones to respond automatically to vehicle crashes, fires and other emergencies while being operated remotely from a centralized control center. Fire officials say the added aerial perspective can help incident commanders make faster, safer decisions before firefighters enter potentially dangerous situations.

As the program grows, so will the need for trained drone operators.

Roseville Fire Battalion Chief Thanh Pham believes military veterans are especially well-suited for the role because of their experience making critical decisions with limited information.

“We’re pretty much problem solvers,” Pham said. “A lot of times in an emergency, we’re given about 60 to 70 percent of the facts and you have to take action. I think that’s a skill set a lot of veterans have that can translate to civilian life or the fire service.”

That’s where the Veterans Workforce Alliance hopes to help, connecting former service members with departments building drone programs.

“When an organization needs drones and drone operators, the military has them,” said Veterans Workforce Alliance board member Nathan Champion. “About 200,000 military personnel transition out of the military every year, so that’s a perfect source for organizations that have that need.”

For Davidson, the expanding drone program reflects how much the fire service has evolved over the past 25 years.

“There’s so many different things that we do in this profession that are outside of just taking a hose into a burning building and putting water on the fire,” he said.

From boots on the ground to eyes in the sky, Roseville firefighters say drones are becoming an increasingly important tool, helping crews gather critical information faster, improve firefighter safety and shape the future of emergency response.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jennifer McRae

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    ARVADA, Colorado (KCNC) — Arvada police used a drone to help capture a bank robbery suspect. According to investigators, the suspect entered the Community Banks of Colorado branch located at 7530 Grandview Avenue about 5 p.m. on July 1.

The suspect allegedly announced, “This is a robbery.” Investigators also said the suspect made statements indicating there could be guns and additional people involved.

The Arvada Police Department’s Drone First Responder program deployed a drone to the scene, which allowed officers to observe the suspect through the bank’s front windows and entrance.

Investigators said that allowed officers to establish a perimeter around the bank and wait for the suspect to exit, which happened after receiving money from bank employees.

Officers were able to capture the suspect as he exited the building and arrest him.

The suspect was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on charges of aggravated robbery.

Officers said all bank employees and patrons should be commended for remaining calm and composed during the situation, which helped bring the incident to a safe resolution.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Claire Graham

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    TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) — July is Disability Pride Month, but for one local family, a recent incident left them feeling more frustrated than proud.

Adiba Nelson and her 17-year-old daughter Emory Webster are a well oiled machine. But what should have been a quick errand for them, exposed a bigger community problem. They brought Adiba’s car to an auto-repair shop for what should have been a one-hour fix. Instead, they suddenly learned the work was going to take four hours, and it left them stranded.

“They offered to call us an Uber,” Adiba explained. “Which I thought was wonderful. And I said, ‘Well, but I have my daughter with me, we need a wheelchair-accessible Uber.’ They said ‘No, it’s fine, they have those available.'”

But when the driver showed up, his idea of “wheelchair accessible” was to fold up Emory’s wheelchair and put it in the trunk.

“I said, ‘Sir, this is not a wheelchair accessible vehicle,'” Adiba said. “He said people put their wheelchairs back here all the time. I said, ‘A foldable wheelchair, sure, a manual wheelchair, sure, but this is a 300 pound electric wheelchair. I can’t fold that and put it in your vehicle.'”

With that, the driver left, leaving them both feeling helpless.

“You were sad, mad, and frustrated,” Adiba said about her daughter, as Emory spoke through her tablet.

Claire Graham reached out to Uber to ask about the incident, but without the driver’s specific information (which wasn’t readily available) the company wasn’t able to comment on that particular ride.

Sitting at the auto shop that day, Adiba posted on Facebook, looking for a ride to get them home. Claire also saw her post, and they both started looking for options online.

It turns out Uber’s fully accessible rides aren’t available to request in Tucson. Claire spoke with VIP Taxi, when a friend saw a wheelchair-accessible van driving through Tucson, but the company said the van is only available from the airport.

“There were a lot of medical transport companies, but you have to book those in advance. There were non-medical transport companies, but you have to book those in advance,” Adiba explained.

Those companies also tend to charge a flat rate that costs a lot more than a quick taxi ride. Several did tell Claire they were willing to help out if they could – but there might be a wait for their services, and they weren’t guaranteed if you don’t schedule ahead.

The Sun Tran was also an option, but Adiba and Emory didn’t want to turn what should have been a seven minute drive home… into an hour and 15 minute bus ride in the summer heat. There was also Sun Van, which is the city’s mobility service.

“Sun Van is a viable option in the situation where you can make a reservation in advance, or you can wait an hour, that is a viable option,” Adiba said. “That is not the viable option for the person whose friends call them and say like, ‘Hey, we’re going out, you want to meet us out tonight?'”

Sun Tran says all of their buses and vans accommodate motorized wheelchairs. But between Sun Shuttle Dial-a-Ride, Sun On Demand and their other services, it’s complicated. So they recommend calling customer service to help you plan a trip — again, ahead of time.

Thankfully Adiba and Emory got a ride home from a friend who had a car specially fitted for a motorized wheelchair. They didn’t have to wait too long, but they know they got lucky. It comes down to the fact that it’s just not fair.

“A convenience should not be limited to ability,” Adiba said. “If there’s an option available for a person without a disability, the same option should be available for a person with a disability. That is a truly accessible community.”

As an author who writes children’s books about inclusivity, especially with two of her books now in the Obama Presidential Center and Library, Adiba sees the irony in what happened. But she says this whole incident also feels like a reason to keep going.

“It was also kind of like confirmation for me that I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing now,” she said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.