Police: Suspect posted photos from drone in Arizona wildfire
A man accused of flying a drone over a major Arizona wildfire posted the aerial photos on his website, authorities said Saturday, leading to his arrest for hampering firefighting efforts against the stubborn blaze menacing an area where 19 firefighters were killed four years ago.
The sheriff's office in a press release said Carpenter recklessly endangered 14 aircraft and fire crews in the air and on the ground "with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury by flying an unmanned drone aircraft in closed airspace above an active fire area."
The fire has also closed a major road and created a huge plume of smoke over the same area devastated by a blaze in 2013 that killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.
The current fire was 44 percent contained, prompting authorities to lift evacuation orders for some nearby communities, though multiple other areas remained under mandatory evacuation.
The sheriff's office said an Air Attack Pilot supervisor encountered the drone on Wednesday, and it started circling his plane when the official tried to see where the drone was coming from.