Our policyholder’s retail premises caught fire. High winds and the open-plan design enabled the fire to spread very quickly, totally destroying the building and contents.
Due to the expanse of the site, the level of destruction and the potential danger to a surveyor, we decided to use a drone to carry out an inspection, taking aerial photographs to assess the damage.
The speed with which we were able to carry out the inspection and analyse the drone imagery helped us to establish the cause of the fire - a discarded cigarette. In turn, we were able to confirm liability much quicker than had we waited for the site to be deemed safe by the Fire Authority.