New Jersey’s Belleville Mayor Michael Melham said the state gave guidance that if a drone is downed “we’re immediately to call the bomb squad of our county” and that “our fire department has been instructed to make sure they wear HAZMAT suits” like it’s an attack on the homeland.
“On the way here, I was on the phone with my OEM team and we now have guidance coming from the state. And that guidance does say two different things. First of all, if there is a downed drone in our vicinity, we’re immediately to call the bomb squad of our county, and, second, our fire department has been instructed to make sure they wear HAZMAT suits,” Melham said Friday on Fox News’ “Faulkner Focus.”
Host Harris Faulkner asked for clarification over whether such a incident is treated more as an attack rather than an accident like a plane crash.
“So, if something falls out of the sky that people have seen…you’re to treat this [like] more than a plane crash, it’s treated like an attack on the homeland?” she asked.
Melham replied, “That is correct, because they’re not quite sure if there’s a payload or not, and that’s what we were told during our briefing on Wednesday.”
Later, he added that “it sounds like it might very well be our highest-level government, it might be government assets that are being deployed as a countermeasure.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday downplayed Melham’s report of the deployment of hazmat suits and bomb squads to crashed drones, claiming such a procedure “makes perfect sense.”
“I haven’t seen that directive, but all of that makes perfect sense to me as a former military person if something like an aircraft of any kind lands in your backyard or close to you or your family, call the authorities, don’t approach it,” Kirby told Fox News. “You don’t know what it is and you don’t know what kind of fuel might be on board. You absolutely should just call the authorities, make sure you report it, don’t go near it, don’t touch it, you don’t want to get hurt.”
This comes as Democrat House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.) warned that these drone swarms were spotted “flying over and close to military installations” in recent days.
“We got an unclassified brief, actually yesterday, said that there were a number of drone sightings, and specifically over Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, that there have been visual sightings they have acknowledged,” he said.