  Applications of drones in emergency response, like firefighting, have been
promoted in the past decade. As the autonomy of drones continues to improve,
the ways in which they are integrated into firefighting teams and their impact
on crews are changing. This demands more understanding of how firefighters
perceive and interact with autonomous drones. This paper presents a drone-based
system for emergency operations with which firefighters can interact through
sound, lights, and a graphical user interface. We use interviews with
stakeholders collected in two field trials to explore their perceptions of the
interaction and collaboration with drones. Our result shows that firefighters
perceived visual interaction as adequate. However, for audio instructions and
interfaces, information overload emerges as an essential problem. The potential
impact of drones on current work configurations may involve shifting the
position of humans closer to supervisory decision-makers and changing the
training structure and content.
