WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — Wake County officials have confirmed the identity of the 21-year-old man who died after drowning in Falls Lake on Sunday. The body of Raiquan Massenburg was found after searching the lake for 30 hours. The Wake Forest Fire Department says its underwater drone played a key role in finding Massenburg.
On Wednesday, the Wake Forest Fire Department ran through a mock training exercise with its underwater drone in Falls Lake.
“All we've got to worry about is getting hooked up and throw it straight in the water. It's all we've got to do. If we know what we're looking for, we can be there within 30 minutes,” said First Class Korey Floyd, a firefighter with the Wake Forest Fire Department. “It's ran through a tether and to a controller that has a video camera on it. And we also have a live sonar.”
The department has been using this equipment for about a year. The drone was involved in its first successful mission, on Monday, finding Massenburg’s body after two boats collided on Falls Lake.
“This past weekend was one of them, actually the first one for this unit itself. The first one we ever got with it. And we did what we want to do. We wanted to bring closer to the families, if we could. And that's what we did,” Floyd said.
The drone works side-by-side with a boat, which has sonar systems helping guide it around submerged obstacles.
“When we're in the water, especially Falls Lake, it’s very murky. You can't see but about 2 feet in front of you. So we drive based off the sonar, which lets us find where we're looking for in the water until we get close enough to actually look at it with our eyes and also grab onto the arm that the unit has itself,” Floyd said.
When dive teams are involved, water temperature, rest periods and prep time have to be accounted for. However, besides changing batteries, those aren’t factors with the drone.
“That [drone] system along with this [boat]. You're not putting so many people in danger like divers. Divers don't have to go down. We’re in the warmer months now, so it's not that bad for them. But we've had a couple during the wintertime that whenever the divers are down, they stay down too long and they get hypothermia,” said Capt. Martin Barrett, with the Wake Forest Fire Department.
The department says the only other agencies that have similar underwater drone technology are in Charlotte, Durham and Sherills Ford. The equipment costs about $80,000.
They are tools that may not seem obvious for a fire department to have but have proved to be invaluable.
“The thing that you realize when you become a fireman is whenever no one knows who to send, you end up getting sent anyways. So it's just one other thing that we can do and help the people who we serve,” Barrett said.
The departments with the technology are often called to help if other areas need this type of equipment.
“Honestly, I'm very happy that we have this resource, because we've been called out to other counties. We have done land searches with them. They've asked for the [drone] specifically,” Barrett said.
Officials say the investigation into the deadly boat collision at Falls Lake is still ongoing.