Rio de Janeiro, Dec 29 (EFE).– Rio de Janeiro firefighters are beginning to use drones equipped with cameras and floating life preservers for quicker rescues and to prevent people from drowning at beaches like Ipanema and Copacabana, authorities said Tuesday.

A drone’s camera will be able to transmit the exact position of a person in danger and its life preserver can be dropped so “the possible victim can stay on the surface until the lifeguards arrive,” the commander of the Copacabana Maritime Association, Lt. Col. Fernando Santos, said.

The small unmanned aircraft will allow paramedics working on the beach as lifeguards to sight possible victims beyond the waves, Santos said in a communique released Tuesday by the Rio de Janeiro state government.

Lifesaving crews are also equipped with motorcycles and life rafts, a well as with boats and aircraft.

Lifesaving operations for the current Southern Hemisphere summer, which began last week, will continue until April and will chiefly be focused on Copacabana, one of the beachgoers’ favorites.

To operate the drones, the pilots had to pass a 240-hour training course, the head of the Fire Department’s Unmanned Aircraft Coordination Unit, Lt. Col. Rodrigo Bastos, said.

“They’re taught disciplines like data transmission, equipment recovery and flight security, among others. The course is based on three basic points: Safety, equipment maintenance and training,” Bastos said.

The lifeguard corps, to guarantee the safety of beachgoers in Rio de Janeiro during the summer, will have a daily reinforcement of 50 percent of the number of rescuers, which means that close of 900 qualified firefighters will be at work on all the state’s beaches. EFE