Drones Hunt Hidden Fires 3 Months After Scottish Wildfire

At 6 a.m. in Scotland's Cairngorms National Park, drone pilot Pete Short launches a thermal camera into the sky to hunt for an invisible enemy.

Three months after a massive July wildfire burned 13 square miles of forest, fires are still burning beneath the ground. Without the drones, nobody would know they're there.

"Without the thermal technology we would be totally blind to this," Short says as his screen reveals a white glow beneath a tree. When he and BBC reporter Shiona McCallum walk to the spot, they feel warmth in the soil and rocks. Scraping away a thin layer of earth releases smoke.

Each week, Short's dawn patrols find about eight hidden hotspots. He reports the exact coordinates to land managers who send teams to dig them out and douse them with water.

For Ben Jones, senior site manager for the RSPB at Abernethy, the precision matters. "We've got limited resources and we can't send everybody out everywhere all the time," he says. "So we really need to know where these specific hot spots are."

The stakes are real. Each underground fire could reignite a larger blaze, even in cold, wet weather.

Five experienced drone pilots flew missions during the height of the emergency, navigating through multiple walls of flame, moving vehicles, and overhead helicopters. Now the dramatic flames are gone, but the careful monitoring continues.

The Ripple Effect

The same drones that fought the fire are now documenting hope. Walking through the scorched forest reveals blackened trunks and the acrid smell of smoke, but green shoots are pushing through the charred ground. Fungi is growing. A small yellow flower emerges from the darkness.

Dr. Sarah Henshall, head of conservation at the Cairngorms National Park Authority, says the drones will track this transformation for years. Short is programming them to fly exactly the same routes month after month, photographing the landscape from identical positions. "Visually it's going to give us some amazing information about how it's recovering," Henshall says.

The recovery timeline spans from days to decades. Some changes will happen quickly, others beyond our lifetimes, but the forest will heal.

The technology might prevent future disasters too. Short believes getting a view above the tree canopy quickly could stop wildfires before they spread. "It's those moments before a wildfire gets out of control that could be critical," he says.

Above ground, the forest shows its first signs of rebirth; below, the last embers finally surrender to the future.