Drone aids firefighters during Hotel Marysville blaze

As firefighters on the ground battled the Hotel Marysville fire on June 15, one unsung hero was flying above the smoke, monitoring the situation and helping to protect surrounding buildings that were in danger of becoming engulfed in flames themselves.

That hero was a drone piloted by Andrew Hall, a fire prevention officer with the city of Marysville, who had earlier in the year graduated as a commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle pilot. Dave McCreary, a career technical education teacher with CORE Charter School in Marysville and founder of aerial photography service New Age Aerial, said Hall took a course with him.