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Photo by Edward X. Young/Monadnock Ledger Staff
Above: Kerry Miller poses for New
Ipswich firefighters for a demonstration of the thermal-imaging camera
that will register a heat-generated image of a person inside a room that
is filled with blinding smoke. |
Edward X. Young/Monadnock Ledger Staff
Above: The Bullard model
thermal-imaging camera, now owned by the New Ipswich Fire Department,
has many amazing used that Fire Chief Rick Hewitt Jr. says 'are limited
only by the imagination.' |
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NEW IPSWICH -- Fire Chief Rick Hewitt Jr. is grateful to
voters, who approved a warrant article that provided some of the funding,
and to the many private citizens and business owners for their generous
donations that went toward the purchase of a life-saving thermal-imaging
camera.
At a public demonstration at the Fire Safety Fair
last fall, members of the Fire Department showed how the camera
works. Using a technology similar to infrared photography, the
camera translates heat rather than light into images not visible to the
naked eye. When it is pointed at a human being, the camera displays
a clearly identifiable ghostly representation. Areas of hotter
temperature are picked up as white, while cooler areas register as
black. The resulting image somewhat resembles a photographic
negative.
When a test room at the fair was filled with harmless
theatrical smoke that was, nevertheless, blinding, the only image that
could be seen was the glowing four-inch video screen on the
thermal-imaging camera that was held in a fireman's hands. In
addition to the camera picking up the images of people, it also revealed a
full image of the room. Doorways, chairs, walls, and windows were
easily discernable, because the materials of these items maintained
distinctly separate temperatures.
In a burning smoke-filled building, a firefighter
can quickly locate disoriented persons looking for help, unconscious
persons on the floor, frightened children hiding in closets or under beds,
and other firefighters. A firefighter can also use the camera to
scan a smoky room and determine that there is no one in there that needs
to be rescued.
In addition, the camera is useful in reducing
property damage. Because the camera registers heat sources, it can
locate hidden fires, hot spots, flash points, and electrical workings
hidden behind walls. Therefore, if firefighters can instantly
pinpoint a hidden heat source, they would not have to rip down an entire
wall to get to the spot.
Nearby towns of Jaffrey, Peterborough, and Ashby,
Mass., also own thermal-imaging cameras and have readily lent their
cameras to other towns in need.
On Christmas Eve, the Jaffrey Fire Department rushed
their camera to the scene of a house fire on Turnpike Road that claimed
the life of Leon Frost. Although firefighters used the camera to
quickly find Frost's body on the floor of his smoke-filled laundry room,
it was too late to save the life of the 65-year-old man. |
Hewitt speculated that if New Ipswich had its own
thermal-imaging camera back then, the time that would have been saved by
having the life-saving device at the scene minutes earlier might have made
a critical difference.
Hewitt said that the camera, which is virtually
guaranteed to save lives, also has practical uses that go beyond fire
fighting.
On Sunday, Hewitt lent the camera to Temple
police to track down a fugitive, who fled into the woods. The
footsteps of the fugitive left latent heat traces on the ground, which
were picked up by the thermal-imaging camera. Police were able to
follow the image of the glowing footsteps through the woods until the
trail terminated at a swamp, into which the fugitive had obviously jumped
in order to evade arrest.
At the scene of an automobile accident, emergency
service personnel can use the camera to quickly locate persons, who have
either been thrown from a vehicle, or who have wandered away. Latent
heat traces can also reveal how many persons were riding in a car before
it was vacated.
"The many possible uses of this amazing
camera," said Hewitt, "are limited only by the
imagination."
Last month, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot
question that provided the Fire Department with $3,000 toward the purchase
of the camera. About $10,000 came through donations that Hewitt said
began to roll in soon after the Ledger first publicized the Fire
Department's desire to purchase the camera last October.
The camera, which was manufactured by the Bullard
Corporation, cost about $12,000 and is similar to the model demonstrated
at the Fire Safety Fair in October.
Hewitt said the surplus funds would be kept in reserve
to be used for what he hopes will be the eventual purchase of a
transmitting unit, which would serve to upgrade the camera and make it an
even more effective life-saving tool.
The transmitting unit would allow the firefighter
inside the building to see through the smoke, while firefighters outside could
also view the same image transmitted onto a screen inside the fire
truck. Through radio contact, the firefighter inside the
smoke-filled structure could be given helpful directions and advice from his
or her partners outside.
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