A journalist who covers wildfires responds to Premee Mohamed's "All That Burns Unseen." In "All That Burns Unseen," set in a dystopian but not-too-distant future, we finally get the drone sidekick we didn't know we needed. Premee Mohamed's heroine, Vaughn Collins, is a government worker gone rogue as a wildfire burns. Along the way, she rescues a dazed, glitchy fire extinguisher drone. When a funnel of flames heads for Vaughn's truck, threatening everything, her new friend dives into the blaze and sprays.

Businesses are installing new thermal imaging kiosks to check employees and visitors for high temperatures and even face coverings. Watkins Security, LLC, a Johnstown-based company that specializes in networks and security systems, introduced the technology in response to interest from the local business community that is continuing efforts to protect people from COVID-19. Watkins Security, LLC, President Christopher Watkins said it's a form of artificial intelligence or deep learning technology. "There is a paradigm brewing. The market is heading to these types of systems – fast response, automatic. Every little second matters," he said.

Drones are not new to industry or the oil and gas sector. They have been used by companies that are offering full-service video, or to capture survey photographs for some time. However, Renner Vaughn, director of oil and gas at commercial drone operator, Cape, believes that there is a major gap between what companies are hoping for and achieving in the use of drones. "What we've done at Cape, is bring the user drones together with aerial telepresence, our technology, to give experts that visibility they need in real time," Vaughn said. "Instead of hiring a company to go out and perform the survey for you, I'm trying to coach them on what to see and what's important in terms of the asset inspection.