Fire officials battling wildfires in the Spokane area have reported more than 40 unauthorized drone incursions into active firefighting airspace, a pattern that has repeatedly forced the grounding of aerial suppression assets during critical windows of fire growth. Each time a drone is spotted or reported within the temporary flight restriction (TFR) established over a wildfire, air tankers, helicopters, and lead planes must be pulled from the fire until officials can confirm the area is clear—a safety protocol that exists because a mid-air collision between a firefighting aircraft and a drone at low altitude would almost certainly be catastrophic for the flight crew and could ground the entire aerial firefighting effort for an extended period. The sheer volume of incidents in Spokane, more than 40 in a single fire season in one region, illustrates how persistent and widespread the problem has become even as the FAA and Forest Service have spent years publicizing the "If You Fly, We Can't Fly" campaign.
For working pilots, particularly those flying single-engine air tankers, large air tankers, helicopters, and lead/lead-in aircraft in wildfire suppression, this is a recurring and serious operational hazard rather than an abstract policy concern. TFRs over fires are issued specifically to protect these low-altitude, high-workload operations, where aircraft are maneuvering close to terrain, smoke, and each other in tight coordination. An unauthorized drone entering that airspace introduces an uncontrolled, often unseen collision risk that firefighting pilots have no reliable way to detect or avoid visually, especially given smoke-degraded visibility and the small radar and visual signature of most consumer drones. The economic and firefighting impact is also significant: every grounding, even a brief one, allows fire growth to continue unchecked during a suppression window that may not be recoverable later in the day due to winds, temperature, or diminishing daylight.
This incident fits into a broader and well-documented trend of drone interference with wildfire operations across the western United States, a problem that has worsened as consumer drone ownership has expanded faster than public awareness of TFR restrictions and the legal consequences of violating them. The FAA has authority to pursue civil penalties up to $75,000 and potential criminal charges under 18 U.S.C. 32 (aircraft sabotage) for drone operators who interfere with firefighting aircraft, and several high-profile prosecutions in recent years have resulted in real penalties, yet incidents continue to occur nearly every fire season. For operators and pilots involved in aerial firefighting contracts, this underscores the importance of coordination with incident command on drone-detection reporting, and it reinforces broader industry concerns about the integration of uncrewed and crewed aircraft in shared, temporarily restricted airspace—an issue that parallels ongoing FAA rulemaking on drone identification (Remote ID) and BVLOS operations more broadly. As drone proliferation continues, the aerial firefighting community will likely keep pushing for better detection technology, faster law enforcement response, and stronger public education to prevent unauthorized flights from compounding the already substantial risks of wildfire aviation.