‘The difference between life and death’: Drone used to find missing 70-year-old in Jefferson County | St. Louis News Headlines

JEFFERSON COUNTY (KMOV.com) — The Excessive Ridge Fireplace Safety District used a drone outfitted with a thermal imaging digital camera to find a 70-year-old man who’d gone lacking in Byrnes Mill on Friday night time. In response to Police Chief Frank Selvaggio, the person was believed to have wandered right into a closely wooded space close to Freeway 30 and Gravois Street.

“I do not imagine that gentleman would have survived the night time if we hadn’t discovered him and that drone was key,” Selvaggio mentioned.

Selvaggio mentioned the person suffers from a dementia-like situation and due to that, police attempt to look out for his security. He mentioned the person had been seen strolling down a highway close to his dwelling earlier, however then an eyewitness report got here in that he was seen taking his garments off and strolling in a creek.

“We had been actually getting involved as a result of the temperature was dropping dramatically at that time. If he was moist within the water, he was going to have some problem surviving the night,” the chief mentioned.

Further officers had been known as in to assist search a closely wooded space west of Woods Residence Enchancment Retailer close to Freeway 30 and Gravois Street. The Excessive Ridge Fireplace Safety District was additionally known as in to assist and introduced a drone, outfitted with a thermal imaging digital camera.

Captain John Barton began the fireplace district’s drone program. “This is the reason we received the know-how for, these are the kinds of conditions the place we knew it may make a huge impact,” he mentioned.

What usually would have been an hours-long search solely took a couple of minutes with using the thermal imaging digital camera. “We launched the drone and inside 5 minutes we had discovered what was clearly a human being,” mentioned Barton.

Barton instructed Information 4 he was ready to make use of the thermal imaging digital camera to information searchers on to the person.

In response to Selvaggio, the person’s situation had considerably deteriorated as a result of he was bare and temperatures had been round 40 levels. He mentioned the person remains to be hospitalized.

“It actually reinforces what we imagine, which is that the drone know-how, when utilized in the appropriate circumstances will be the distinction between life and dying,” mentioned Barton.

Barton mentioned the fireplace district’s drone value $25,000 and was paid for solely by a donation from a neighborhood enterprise proprietor.