Power lines are virtually everywhere, and since they’re so high up in the air, various airborne objects sometimes have a tendency to get tangled up in them. This is often harmless if the objects are small or aren’t damaging the line, but there are cases where it can develop into a more serious scenario, causing the lines to break and leading to power outages or perhaps a more dangerous scenario. So what is one to do if something caught on a power line needs to be taken down? You could get some sort of specialized vehicle with a raised bucket, put somebody in said bucket, and retrieve it manually, sure, but why do that when you can torch it down with a flamethrower drone?

I saw this GIF on Reddit today, of some sort of fabric stuck on a line and being burned off of it by a drone with a flamethrower, and it’s pretty awesome. It turns out that this wasn’t an isolated incident of some home garage tinkerer modifying his consumer-grade drone in dangerous ways: The video above is from early 2017, and shows an electric power maintenance company in Xiangyang, China using the drones to clear debris off a line. The whole set-up (before adding flamethrowing abilities, that is) costs about $2,500, which seems like a small price to pay for being able to burn things out of the sky.

What other uses do you see this fiery drone being good for? Whatever you’re thinking, let us know in the comments (but please leave the birds alone, thanks).

Featured image: motboltz/YouTube