In its simplest role, the thermal imager (TI) is all about increasing the efficiency and safety of the individual firefighter and the company as a whole. In short, when in the hands of trained operators, TIs enable firefighters to:
- Search a smoke-obscured area much faster than possible without using one
- Assess the interior fire flow path more quickly and more accurately
- Maneuver through a smoke-filled environment in a fraction of the time required without the aid of the TI
It should be no surprise then that having a second TI on the apparatus and in the hands of a single crew is quickly becoming the norm in the U.S. fire service. I have seen several departments that provide a TI for the company officer and a second imager in the back of the cab for the crewmembers. This is becoming increasingly common with truck companies that use a “split crew” deployment of their staffing.
A compelling case
A colleague recently watched several evolutions of a rapid-intervention team (RIT) training with a large department in Florida, and relayed his observations to me. Their assignment was to locate and disentangle a firefighter from a large pile of debris, provide immediate life support functions, and get the member to the exterior of the building. These evolutions were conducted under live-fire conditions and at near zero visibility. For the purposes of providing a solid debriefing tool, he provided the department with a thermal imaging video of each session.
There are challenges with disentanglement in zero-visibility conditions. My colleague mentioned that one thing became clear to everyone present during the debrief: If one member of the RIT team equipped with a TI had been assigned to monitor the situation and provide instruction to the team about specific actions required to extricate the firefighter and execute the removal process, the task could have been done in a considerably shorter time. Since a RIT team can advance only as fast as its slowest team member, from a practical perspective, it would be highly beneficial for the team to deploy multiple TIs.
Second nature
A representative from a busy, progressive department recently told me that his department is transitioning to a deployment plan of four imagers on each truck company. This is the first stage toward a deployment of one imager for each firefighter operating on the interior of the structure. This kind of deployment speeds up the entire crew, increasing efficiency and overall effectiveness of the team.
Unfortunately, having a TI on the truck is one thing, while having a firefighter actually grab it before entering a burning structure is, too often, quite another thing. It’s still too common for firefighters, in the heat of the moment, to forget to grab TIs while rushing off the apparatus. Then, during the critical moments of need, someone realizes the TI never made it in.
As a community, we need to continuously reinforce to firefighters and their supervisors that TIs are critical components of the toolkit. Bringing TIs in on a call should be as second nature as putting on an SCBA when entering a burning structure. In other words, it should be standard operating procedure for all fire departments.
Increased team efficiency and accountability are key benefits, but so is the advantage of having more eyes on the fire. The TI’s ability to portray fire progression, display the cooling effects of water or foam, and signal extreme heat buildup enables firefighters to react in the moment to limit property loss, conserve water or foam supplies, and potentially evacuate before conditions become unsafe.
All of this thinking should not be limited to well staffed career departments. Whether career, volunteer, combination or industrial, all departments can all benefit from having additional thermal imagers on their apparatus as well as defined operating procedures for deploying them. In fact, the efficiency that the TI brings to a department can be magnified in situations where available staffing is not optimal. TI prices have decreased markedly in the last several years. The lower cost of acquisition goes hand in hand with the deployment of additional TIs at the company level. A friend of mine, who has more than 35 years in the fire service, summed it up this way, “When I first came on the job, there was only one air pack on the truck. Now, everyone has a dedicated SCBA. Thermal imagers are destined for the same deployment.”
In Sum
There is no question that TIs save lives. With their cost dropping, fire departments can now more easily afford these life-saving tools and embrace the use of multiple imagers within their organizations.
Pull quote option: The lower cost of acquisition goes hand in hand with the deployment of additional TIs at the company level.
