Dubai’s firefighters could one day use jetpacks to tackle blazes in high-rise buildings. The oil-rich emirate signed a contract this week with the Martin Aircraft Company to purchase 20 jetpacks and two training simulators for the Dubai Civil Defense service (DSD). The jetpacks are intended to be used in a “first-responder role,” said Lt Col Ali Hassan Almutawa of the DSD, who said they would be particularly useful for emergencies in the city’s ever-growing number of skyscrapers.
“Sometimes we have challenges or difficulties to reach the top floors of those buildings. The [jetpacks] can go into confined spaces to size up the situation. We are going to modify them with thermal imaging cameras,” Almutawa told BBC News.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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