NEW BEDFORD NEW BEDFORD. Drone teams from six public safety agencies trained together in New Bedford on Wednesday, in a drill hosted by the New Bedford Fire Department that put the region's unmanned aircraft through realistic emergency scenarios.
Taking part were the New Bedford Fire Department, the New Bedford Emergency Management Agency, the Bristol County Drone Team, the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office Drone Team, the U.S. Coast Guard's drone unit and the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services drone unit. The Department of Fire Services' Special Operations team supported the exercise with an Incident Support Unit and a Rehabilitation Unit.
The department said the drill gave the teams practice running drone operations under conditions like a real emergency, with the focus on interagency coordination and interoperability. Participants compared equipment and shared techniques, and the department said the teams came away with a clearer picture of each other's capabilities.
The department credited joint training like Wednesday's with building the relationships, communication protocols and coordination that agencies rely on during real emergencies, and thanked the participating agencies and personnel.
A growing state drone fleet
The Department of Fire Services has supplied drones and certified pilots to local fire departments for about 10 years, and about a dozen of its drones are staged across Massachusetts for rapid response when a department requests them. Its Special Operations team fields four rehabilitation units, which keep firefighters healthy, hydrated and fed at large incidents, and three incident support units, which provide on-scene communications, conferencing and mapping, along with all-terrain vehicles and trailer-based equipment.
In December 2025 the department added three drones built to fly inside buildings, for hazardous materials calls, structural collapses and other dangerous interiors. "We try to gather as much information on the hot zone environment as we can before sending a Hazmat technician downrange," said Timothy Gallagher, deputy director of the department's Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Division.
"Drones were a giant step forward for situational awareness in the fire service," State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine said when the interior drones were announced. "Up until now, we've used them primarily to provide aerial footage from outside a structure or above a large wildfire or search area."
The department said joint training like Wednesday's drill continues to strengthen regional emergency response readiness.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
The drill facts (the day, the host, the six agencies, the DFS support units, the goals and the department's thanks) come from the New Bedford Fire Department's own Oct. 21 announcement. The statewide context (the decade of DFS drone support, about a dozen drones staged statewide, the rehab and incident support units, the December interior drones and the Davine quote) comes from the Department of Fire Services' Dec. 15, 2025 release on mass.gov. Oct. 21, 2026 was a Wednesday.
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Sources (3)
- New Bedford Fire Department announcement of the multi-agency UAS drillNew Bedford Fire Department, posted Oct. 21, 2026 ("Today, the New Bedford Fire Department had the opportunity to host a multi-agency Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Drill"): the six participating agencies, the DFS Special Operations Incident Support Unit and Rehabilitation Unit, the training goals (realistic emergency scenarios, interagency coordination, interoperability, shared knowledge and equipment) and the department's thanks. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- DFS Adds New Interior Drone Resources to Support Fire/Rescue OperationsMassachusetts Department of Fire Services, Dec. 15, 2025: three new interior drones for Hazmat, structural collapse and other dangerous calls, tested through 2025; the Davine quote; Special Operations has delivered drones and certified pilots for about 10 years, about a dozen staged statewide; four Rehab units, three Incident Support Units (communications, conferencing, mapping), ATVs and trailer-based resources. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- Also reported by: New Bedford Guide.