Help from above: Rebuilding Paradise with help of free drone service
PARADISE, Calif. — The Rebuild Paradise Foundation is offering free drone services to Paradise homeowners, businesses and other organizations looking to rebuild .
"When we started our foundation we realized one of the benefits we could use in the Camp Fire recovery was utilizing technology," said Charles Brooks, the foundation's executive director and one of its two drone pilots.
Thus far the foundation has flown more than 100 missions to provide design professionals a bird's eye view and plenty of data of empty lots before hammer goes to nail to rebuild.
"Having access to this data helps with pre-planning and the ability to save money," said Brooks.
For a homeowner rebuilding his house after the fire a drone service would cost a few hundred dollars, but the foundation provides the service for free so long as they go through a design professional first.
"It makes it easy for us to locate all of the existing features such as septic tanks, original footprints of the homes and driveways," said Jarrod Holliday, the owner of Rancho Engineering in Paradise.
"(The drone data) shows up nice and clear so we can start doing the linework to create the new sight plan," he said.
Holliday estimates it saves several hours of sight surveying on the ground.
"And that's all just a cost benefit to the owners," he said.
Anyone looking to rebuild can go to their website to learn more about the free drone service.
