The Syracuse Fire Department is taking their emergency response tools up, up, and away.
It took a year of research and 40 hours of intense training to get the department FAA certified to operate drones.
"The training is pretty intense," said Captain Timothy Gleeson. "We're all trained to be firemen, we're trained in emergency response, we're trained medical providers. This was really learning a brand new field, and learning aviation for our folks."
They're flying the first two drones in department history, but they're not the first ones to do it. They've had plenty of departments guiding them in the right direction.
"We see a very large application in search and rescue, we see a large application in wildfires," added Gleeson.
It has the capability to bring regular or thermal video up on a screen in real time, giving firefighters an overhead look at just what they're up against.