Client:
Bombeiros
Industry:
Public Safety
Location:
Portugal
Purpose:
Fire Fighting
About:
Bombeiros Portugal is the national firefighting and civil protection force, responsible for emergency response across wildfires, urban incidents, and coastal rescues. With one of Europe’s largest public safety drone networks, they use AirHub to manage operations, ensure compliance, and enhance situational awareness during critical missions.
How AirHub enables 700+ pilots to manage wildfire response and coastal SAR on a national scale.
The challenge: fragmented operations in high-stakes environments
Portugal faces extreme annual challenges, ranging from devastating wildfires in the interior to complex Search and Rescue (SAR) missions along its rugged Atlantic coast. With over 700 pilots spread across various regions and agencies, the fire service initially struggled with operational silos.
Without a central overview of active missions or available assets, coordination was difficult. Furthermore, maintaining uniform safety standards and pilot certifications across hundreds of decentralized teams created significant compliance risks. These data bottlenecks meant that critical live feeds and telemetry often failed to reach command centers in time to support life-saving decisions during the "golden hour" of a crisis.
The solution: a unified Drone Operations Center (DOC)
The Portuguese firefighting and civil protection authorities implemented AirHub as the central platform to transform ad-hoc deployments into a streamlined national ecosystem. The platform delivers:
Real-time streaming & telemetry: Instant thermal feeds from firefronts are shared with command centers to guide ground crews safely.
Centralized asset management: A single dashboard to manage 700+ pilots, diverse drone fleets (RGB & Thermal), and maintenance logs.
Multi-agency coordination: Tools that enable seamless collaboration between fire brigades, civil protection, and the coast guard.
ISO 27001 Security: A secure SaaS environment meeting strict EU standards for data residency and GDPR compliance.
The below video showcases how AirHub is being deployed by te fire departments across Portugal
The impact: from reactive to proactive response
By transitioning to AirHub, Portuguese authorities have set a new benchmark for public safety. The most immediate result is increased operational speed; victims are localized faster during SAR missions because imagery is transmitted instantly to every involved agency. Readiness has also reached a peak, as centralized management of training records ensures the fleet is 24/7 compliant and ready to fly at a moment's notice. This shift has directly enhanced responder safety, as ground teams now move with the precision of real-time heat mapping rather than outdated information. Ultimately, AirHub has provided the scalability required to support hundreds of concurrent missions during peak wildfire seasons, proving that drone technology is a vital, coordinated pillar of national security.
“With AirHub, we have a single, secure platform to coordinate hundreds of drone teams across different regions and agencies, whether it’s wildfires inland or maritime rescues along the coast.”— Pedro Tavares, Head of Drone Trainings & Operations Escola Nacional de Bombeiros
Curious to find out what AirHub can do for your organization? Book a demo with one of our experts to find out more.