Atlas Twp.- The township fire department may soon have a new tool in their firefighting arsenal.
At Monday’s Atlas Township board meeting, fire chief Jim Naugler was allotted up to $9,750 for the purchase of a thermal imaging camera.
The camera, explained Naugler, is able to pinpoint hot spots. It’s a function that helps locate fires in the walls as well as people and pets trapped in a room that may other wise go undetected in the smoke.
Firefighters point the camera at a location and look at a digital screen on the device to see a heat-sensitive image of a room.
‘It tells right where a fire is,? said Naugler.
Grand Blanc Fire Department Chief James Harmes said his department has been using a thermal imaging camera for eight years.
We use it quite regularly searching for hot spots in buildings,? said Harmes. ‘It’s worked very efficiently for us.?
‘We use it on every structure fire’even smoke investigations. It’s almost like a second nature tool. I couldn’t tell you one single fire where we haven’t used it since we got it.?
Harmes said it’s not only the fire department that has benefitted from the camera.
‘We have used it with the police department to look for people in the woods? its been used a number of times by the police department, ‘said Harmes.
One of the benefits of the camera is that by zeroing-in on the exact location of the fire, damage is minimized for the home or business owner.
Naugler explained that without the device, firefighters are often left guessing where a fire is centralized within a wall. At times this leads to walls being damaged to gain access to the fire in the wrong place. This causes undue damage to the property and extends the amount of time that passes before extinguishing the fire.