News

Drone averts drug lab access after explosion

FIREFIGHTERS have used a high-tech Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) – drone – to assess the stability of an alleged clandestine drug lab, after an explosion rocked Chester Hill, early last Wednesday morning.

Authorities believe a cooking keg exploded in the two-storey house in Curtis Road about 1am and penetrated the ground floor and first floor ceilings before breaking through the roof, where it came to rest.
Streaming footage back to Fire and Rescue NSW and police commanders outside, the drone showed the property was structurally unstable for investigators and engineers to enter, to begin shoring up and processing the crime scene.
At the same time, firefighters and police used an aerial ladder platform, capable of extending up to 37m in the air, to retrieve the cooking vessel from the roof of the property.
Police investigations are continuing.