Drone hits police helicopter as fire crews fight Encino brush fire, forcing emergency landing

A drone hit a Los Angeles police helicopter as firefighters fought a brush fire near the Encino Reservoir on Tuesday afternoon, July 7, authorities said.

The drone struck the LAPD helicopter near Reseda Boulevard and the 101 Freeway around 3 p.m., Officer Charles Miller with LAPD media relations said. The helicopter landed at Van Nuys Airport. There were no injuries reported and minor damage to the helicopter, Miller said.

The Encino blaze reached 8 acres. Evacuation warnings were issued and then lifted on Tuesday afternoon as the fire burned close to a neighborhood before flames were put out.

There were downed power lines on the scene, which fire authorities called LADWP about. LAFD Chief Jaime Moore said the blaze was caused by power lines, according to ABC7.

“What they found was about a 50 x 50 spot fire that was believed to have been caused by some power line that came down. Our firefighters immediately did an aggressive attack… they were mopping up that fire when, just up the hillside, another spot fire broke out because of the energized power line that hit the ground there,” Moore said. “They immediately left that 50 x 50 spot and went up to that other fire, which was associated with this fire only because it was the same power line.”

“I will say that it is completely unacceptable and illegal to fly drones like this, and we had that incident in previous fires as well. If you remember, in the Palisades, it hit one of the helicopters, and so the message is — this is unacceptable,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, according to ABC7. “If we find out who you are, you will be arrested, and you will be prosecuted. So any lookie-loos out there, this is very dangerous to everyone.”

Full containment of the fire was reached on Tuesday night, Lantz said.