Washington firefighters will soon be able to see through walls — sort of. Thanks to a $32,300 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Washington Fire Department will soon be purchasing three new thermal imaging cameras, said Fire Chief Mike Vaughn.
The cameras function much like night vision on a helicopter, registering heat on the camera screen. “They help us to locate hidden fires in walls. It enables us to see through smoke, and we can see if outlets or light fixtures are overheated right away,” Vaughn said.
In addition, he said, the cameras reduce damage costs to homeowners, because the firefighters will be able to see specifically where any electrical fires are hidden and not have to tear apart a bunch of walls searching for the fire.
The cameras will come in particularly handy with rescue situations, said Assistant Fire Chief Jai Windish, as firefighters will quickly be able to determine if there is anyone trapped in a room — fire victims or firefighters.
In addition to the increased safety factor, the cameras will help the department allocate their resources more efficiently during fires, Windish said.
“With the cameras, we can just peek in there without having to search the entire room. We aren’t going to be sending people into risky environments unnecessarily,” said Windish.
The department has had a few thermal cameras in the past, Windish said, but they could never afford to buy more than one at a time, and the ones they do have are outdated and inefficient.
The Washington Fire Department was required to match the grant with $1,700 of their own money, Vaughn said, which they budgeted for last year when they applied for the grant. If they had not received the grant, said Vaughn, they simply would have carried the money over and kept it in their general fund.
FEMA, part of the Department of Homeland Security, awarded 12 grants totaling $1.7 million to fire departments throughout Illinois for fire prevention, vehicle acquisition, operations and safety, according to the office of Sen. Dick Durbin.
“Our nation’s firefighters are called upon day after day to protect America’s citizens ... We must assure that they are equipped with the best resources possible to do their jobs well,” Durbin stated.
Actual funding is provided through the DHS’ Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, which has sought “to strengthen the nation’s overall level of preparedness and ability to respond to fire and fire related hazards” since 2001, the release states.
In May, Vaughn said, his department will go to Peoria for a live-fire training exercise, where several vendors are expected to bring demo cameras for the crew to test out under “real” conditions.
Once the department has chosen their preferred make and model, and finished the bidding process, Vaughn said he expects to have the cameras in hand by the end of the summer.
The grant will also pay for a specialized “extractor” washing machine for their fire gear, said Vaughn, which purportedly removes all carcinogens, blood, chemicals and potentially harmful materials from the cloth.
