SALEM FIREFIGHTERS Thermal camera becomes hot item

The chief said the thermal camera is the greatest advancement in firefighting technology since the air tank.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- "We're like a bunch of kids with a new toy at Christmas," Fire Chief Walt Greenamyer said. "We're tickled to death."
The department's new "toy" is a $19,000 thermal imaging camera package donated by the Salem Community Foundation and the Pearce Foundation. The foundations split the cost, Greenamyer said.
Included is a thermal imaging camera, monitor and videocassette recorder.
The equipment allows firefighters to "see" in a dark, smoke-filled room by recording changes in temperature.
Greenamyer said the thermal imaging camera is the greatest technology advancement for firefighting since the self-contained breathing apparatus.
"We haven't discovered all the things this equipment can do, and I don't think even the manufacturer knows," he said.
'First priority'
Locating victims and fellow firefighters in a smoke-filled interior during a structure fire is the priority use for the camera, Greenamyer said.
"Saving lives is our first priority, then property," he said.
The camera will show the image of anything giving off heat, from humans and other mammals such as family pets, to overheated electrical outlets, or the smoldering fire in the insulation of an interior wall or deep in the upholstery of a sofa or chair.
Greenamyer said without the camera, firefighters grope about in the darkness, often on their hands and knees, searching for victims, or even simply to determine where they are in a building.
With only touch and sound to guide them, firefighters can lose valuable time searching for victims or the source of a fire.
Greenamyer said the camera will reduce the search time from 10 to 15 minutes down to two or three.
Sometimes the smoke from a fire is so thick firefighters can't see the fire even if it's in the same room. Having "eyes" in the smoke will make firefighters less anxious, he said.
Finding chemical spills
Greenamyer said the camera will be useful looking for chemical spills or a lost person.
A chemical spill on water will show up because the temperature of the chemical is different than that of the surrounding water, he said.
Such spills or a brewing electrical problem is often difficult to see with the naked eye, but the camera will pick it up immediately, he said.
Firefighters could scan farm fields or wooded areas from a vehicle and the image won't blur, Greenamyer said.
The camera would pick up the image of a lost child hidden in high grass, he said.
"This camera will save lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars in property," Greenamyer said. "If we can see where a fire is in a ceiling or wall, we won't have to cut through to search for it."
The camera also records temperature readings, so firefighters know if a fire is becoming too hot to handle. The camera registers the thermal heat waves, so if a fire is in another room and the door is open, it will show the heat coming out of that room.
Place a hand on a wall or walk across the floor, and the camera will record a thermal hand print or footprint for a few seconds. It will show the outline of a hot door or a lighted exit sign above it.
Determining danger
Greenamyer said firefighters can use the camera to determine if a fire is about to become dangerous. Recording changes in temperature, they can tell if a fire is about to produce a dangerous burst of flame known as a flashover.
"We'll be able to tell it's time to get out of there," he said. "We have to get out quickly because we can't survive that."
With a monitor on a truck outside, Greenamyer and other firefighters outside a building can monitor the inside crew's progress.
"I can watch for changes outside the building and I'll know where the guys are inside," he said. "Watching the monitor, I might see something they miss and tell them to go back and check it."
Greenamyer hopes to be able to purchase a second camera so that if something happens to the crew using the camera in a building, the crew going in to search for them would also have a camera.
"This is cutting-edge technology -- the very best," said Greenamyer.
"The New York Fire Department lost 46 of these cameras in the World Trade Center," he said. "The state of New Jersey provided funding to purchase 750 cameras for fire departments across the state. That's how valuable they are."