Sonora, CA…From the Tuolumne Sheriff’s Office…”Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) use impeding with efforts to extinguish forest fire. Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office has been called to the area of the Quarter Fire due to an unidentified person operating a UAV into the fire zone. Due to the UAV use, U.S. Forest Service-Stanislaus National Forest has been forced to ground all aircraft utilized to extinguish the fire.

As one could infer, this has a strong negative effect on our firefighters’ abilities to contain and extinguish the fire. Ultimately, these actions could result in greater risk and danger to the community and fire personnel.

The use of a UAV over a fire zone is a crime under California Penal Code section 402(2) and the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations: 43 CFR 9212.1(f).”