What's Your Deployment Model?

There is little doubt that thermal imagers (TIs) save lives. Lifting the veil of thick smoke and restoring sight dramatically reduces search time, improving the odds of rapidly locating and extricating trapped victims. In fact, a study conducted in early 2000 showed residential search times dropped an average of 75% when conducted with a TI. Although TIs were introduced to the fire service in the mid-1990s, adoption has been swift and widespread.

A survey published by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) in 2006 showed that 55% of U.S. fire departments owned at least one TI. This was a dramatic increase over a survey published in 2002 showing that only 24% of departments owned a TI. The USFA states that, "The majority of fire departments (55%) now own thermal imaging cameras, and the majority of those that do not, have plans to acquire them."

This sounds impressive. One could easily construe from reading this report that the majority of firefighters now have access to the technology. Read the statement closely and it says the majority of fire departments, not the majority of firefighters. While thermal imaging continues to become more and more prevalent in the fire service, the level of access becomes the question. How accessible is the TI? If the TI is not immediately accessible, it is far less likely to be used. Search and rescue is one of the first tasks undertaken on a fire scene and if a TI is not present when search operations begin, it cannot contribute to a successful outcome. So the question is — what is the deployment model for your department?

Let's start off by defining "deployment." The website www.dictionary.com defines it as "to position in readiness for combat. To distribute systematically or strategically." What strategic or systematic choices have you or your department made to position your equipment for combat? Where is the TI currently located and what was the thought process that located it there? The decisions made here affect how that imager will be used, what role it will serve and how you should be training.

There are essentially four levels of TI deployment within the fire service. These different levels are quantified not by the overall volume of imagers owned, but by how deeply ingrained thermal imaging has become within a fire department: