BRINC adds free wildfire and smoke tracking as public safety drone investments soar

As public safety agencies across the Western U.S. battle active wildfires and hazardous fire conditions, Seattle-based drone manufacturer BRINC has added two new real-time intelligence layers to its LiveOps software: live wildfire tracking and real-time smoke coverage.

Available as of Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, to all BRINC customers at no additional cost, the new map layers pull directly from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data feeds. The update allows public safety agencies, emergency managers, and law enforcement teams to visualize active fire detections and smoke density directly alongside their live drone telemetry, video streams, and incident maps.

The story behind BRINC’s wildfire tracking software

BRINC’s new feature originated from a practical internal fix rather than a long-planned product roadmap.

Earlier last week, a BRINC engineer began stitching together NOAA wildfire tracking feeds to monitor active fire lines for an upcoming personal camping trip. Recognizing that unified data could be valuable to first responders currently deployed on active fire lines across the country, the BRINC team fast-tracked the feature from prototype to production deployment in a few days.

“When agencies are stretched thin responding to wildfires, the last thing they need is another screen to check,” said Blake Resnick, BRINC Founder and CEO in a prepared statement. “Our customers already run their drone operations in our software. Now fire activity and smoke conditions are right there on the same map. And like every BRINC integration, it’s free.”

Within the browser-based LiveOps interface, public safety teams can independently toggle two different environmental views:

• Active Fire Detections: Real-time thermal and satellite-detected fire locations to track active fronts, spot fires, and fire growth.
• Real-Time Smoke Coverage: NOAA atmospheric smoke density models that help pilots assess visual conditions, plan flight paths, and anticipate ground-level visibility challenges.

But as departments acquire more sensors, radar systems, and software tools, emergency managers have run into a new type of operational hurdle: data fragmentation. Getting the data now is the easy part, but managing it is the tricky part.

For example, during a major fire incident, incident commanders often find themselves toggling between separate CAD (Computer-Aided Dispatch) screens, weather applications, satellite tracking sites, and live video feeds. By streaming NOAA satellite fire detections and smoke models directly into the primary flight map alongside live drone video and telemetry, tools like LiveOps aim to eliminate “screen fatigue” during high-stress responses.

Fire departments turn to drones

BRINC’s rapid software rollout comes as fire departments and emergency management agencies pour record funding into unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

According to data from Grand View Research, the global firefighting drone market surpassed $1.3 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach nearly $2.8 billion by the early 2030s, with North American agencies accounting for more than 34% of global spending.

What began years ago as experimental pilot programs with off-the-shelf consumer quadcopters has matured into specialized, multi-mission aerial fleets. Specific drone tasks include:

• Thermal hotspot detection: Drones equipped with radiometric thermal sensors allow crews to scan mop-up zones and identify subterranean embers hidden under ash beds before they reignite.
• Nighttime perimeter mapping: Traditional piloted aircraft face extreme hazards operating low over active wildfires at night. Drones equipped with optical and infrared (IR) cameras allow incident commanders to map active fire boundaries 24/7 without risking pilot lives.
• Controlled backburns: Agencies frequently deploy specialized payloads (such as Drone Amplified’s IGNIS system) that drop small ignition spheres to execute controlled backburns, starving approaching wildfires of fuel.
• Drone as a First Responder (DFR): Urban and suburban departments are increasingly launching automated drones directly from station rooftops when a 911 call comes in, giving incoming engines a live video feed of structural fires or brush blazes before crews even arrive on scene.

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