Oregon's two airspace agencies issued a blunt joint warning on Aug. 20, ordering drone pilots to keep uncrewed aircraft out of active wildfire zones after unauthorized flights delayed aerial firefighting at the Grasshopper Fire near Mount Hood in one of the state's worst fire seasons on record.
If you fly, firefighters can't
The Oregon Department of Aviation and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management said air tankers and helicopters must leave the airspace and wait for confirmation before returning to a fire when a drone appears overhead, wasting minutes that let flames grow. "We want to make sure that people understand: if there's a wildfire, don't fly," Oregon Department of Aviation Director Kenji Sugahara told KOIN 6 News. Andrew Jahier, the emergency department's director of response and recovery, added: "No photo is worth a federal prison sentence or a $75,000 fine."
More than 20 large fires are burning in Oregon, with roughly 2.4 million acres already scorched, more than the state lost in all of 2025.
67 incursions and counting
The U.S. Forest Service has recorded 67 drone incursions near wildfires nationally so far in 2026. August has been the worst stretch. In Washington, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels reported 26 incursions in a single day on Aug. 2 over the Spokane Complex, four of them directly in the path of working aircraft. The next evening a drone grounded the fleet for another 30 minutes. In New Mexico, drones twice shut down air tankers over the Frijoles Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest.
The record 2025 season logged 218 wildfire drone incursions, more than the Forest Service had counted in the previous seven years combined. That season also produced a collision between a DJI Mini and a Super Scooper over the Palisades Fire, whose operator later pleaded guilty to a federal charge.
Penalties and next steps
Flying a drone over an Oregon wildfire can cost up to $75,000 in civil fines, up to 12 months in federal prison, confiscation of equipment and permanent loss of pilot certificates. Sugahara said drone-detection equipment deployed at some incidents can locate an aircraft in the air and, in some cases, the ground station that launched it. Spokane County identified multiple operators within days and referred citations to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Related coverage on The Robotics Media includes an FBI counter-drone task force at the Spokane Complex, congressional efforts on counter-UAS standards, and the recent US expansion of Prime Air MK30 drone delivery that is putting more consumer-class aircraft in shared low-altitude airspace.
Reporting based on the Oregon Department of Emergency Management release, KOIN 6 News, FireRescue1 and DroneXL.