If you ever wanted to become a firefighter in an exotic location, now you have the perfect extra motivation: jetpacks.
As if Dubai didn’t have enough hi-tech with all the awesome cars and helicopters and all, firefighters will receive jetpacks as part of the new year’s city budget – this is considered a “practical” solution for fighting fires in one of the city’s many skyscrapers. Ali Hassan Almutawa, director of the Dubai Civil Defense Operations Department explained:
“Sometimes we have challenges or difficulties to reach the top floors of those buildings.” The jetpacks will also have thermal imaging cameras onboard to aid in finding people inside buildings, also helping save people from high stories.
But the jetpacks, which will be shipping in from New Zealand, are not the only stunning piece of technology for fighting high fires. Recently, U.S. Navy has unveiled a two-legged firefighting robot that can operate a hose in areas too hot for humans.
“We set out to build and demonstrate a humanoid capable of mobility aboard a ship, manipulating doors and fire hoses, and equipped with sensors to see and navigate through smoke,” said Thomas McKenna, the human-robot interaction manager for the Office of Naval Research, in a press release.
I have to say, at first I thought this is quite some Dubai-style overkill, but the more I look at it, the more it seems like this is technology put to good use. I just wish more cities get to put this to good use, and I hope it will work as good as planned.