Worldwide, there is a significant increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by emergency services. They offer a lot of possibilities during rescue operations. Such a wide application for various purposes and environments causes many threats related to their use. To minimize the risks associated with conducting air operations with UAVs, the application of the SORA (Specific Operations Risk Assessment) methodology will be important. Due to its level of detail, it is a methodology adapted to civilian use. In this article, the authors’ team will try to develop guidelines and directions for adapting SORA to the requirements of the operational work of emergency services. Thus, the following article aims to present the most important risks related to conducting operations with the use of UAVs by first responders (FRs), and to show the sample risk analysis performed for this type of operation on the example of the ASSISTANCE project. The paper describes, on the one hand, possibilities offered by UAVs in crisis or disaster management and step-by-step Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA), and on the other hand, presents possible threats, consequences and methods of their mitigation during FR missions.

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Worldwide, there is a significant increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by emergency services. They offer a lot of possibilities during the rescue operation. Such a wide application for various purposes and environments causes many threats related to their use. To minimize the risks associated with conducting air operations with UAVs, the SORA methodology will be important. Due to its level of detail, it is a methodology adapted to civilian use. In this article, the authors' team will try to develop guidelines and directions for adapting SORA to the requirements of the operational work of emergency services. Thus following article aims to present the most important risks related to conducting operations with the use of UAVs by First Responders (FRs) and to show the sample risk analysis performed for this type of operation on the example of the ASSISTANCE project. The paper describes, on the one hand, possibilities offered by UAVs in crisis or disaster management and step-by-step Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) and on the other hand, presents possible threats, consequences and methods of their mitigation during FRs missions.

The analysis of the literature shows that numerous factors, such as Climate change, more and more frequent and long-lasting droughts, and the growing trend of using forests for recreational purposes, cause a constant increase in the risk of forest fires. Poland, despite having numerous and vast forest areas in the form of national or landscape parks, is classified as having an average risk of fire compared to other European countries. Currently, our country is characterized by the emergence of a large number of forest fires within a small area. In 2019, there were almost 9,200 such events, which put Poland in third place in Europe (behind Spain and Portugal). It should be noted, however, that large-scale forest fires with an area of several hundred hectares have occurred and are still a threat in Poland. Therefore, it has been proposed to use a proactive method to limit or compensate for the effects of hazards caused by large-scale fires, which are of key safety, environmental and economic importance. In the article, the authors focused on the presentation of the currently used solutions and compensation for the effects of these threats and presented possible prospective solutions based on the conducted and planned scientific research on monitoring large-scale fires and the possibility of forecasting them during operational activities, based on unmanned systems and techniques and satellite technologies.

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