A hobbyist drone crash landed in a Sunnyvale, California, park Wednesday morning, sparking a grass fire.
The fire spread over a single acre and, according to KPIX-TV, was extinguished by the local fire department within 20 minutes of it starting.
Capt. Jeffrey Hunter with the city's public safety department told the news station dry conditions and a breeze allowed the fire to start and spread, likely caused by heat from the device itself or its battery.
Drone Crashes In Sunnyvale Field, Starts 1-Acre Grass Fire https://t.co/8IpuMzP9E3 #sanfrancisco pic.twitter.com/0Y4iOM7C19
— San Francisco News (@SFnewsnow) October 8, 2015Across the country, a separate but similar incident in East Hampton, New York, this week resulted in a drone-caused sidewalk fire.
According to the Sag Harbor Express, photographer Paul Callahan was taking aerial photos of a local condominium building Tuesday when the device "just went out of control," he said.
The drone hit a boy in the leg, though he was not seriously injured, and caused some minor damage to a variety store. The destroyed drone was extinguished by firefighters.
OF COURSE this happened on Long Island // Drone's battery catches fire, crashes onto street https://t.co/ktynqpquQL pic.twitter.com/uTlYuMShoB
— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) October 8, 2015Callahan told the Express, which noted another drone mishap of his involving a sailboat, that his career as a drone pilot was over.
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This story has been updated to correct a typo.
