Plantation firefighters will be able to do their jobs more effectively with the purchase of a new thermal-imaging device, approved by City Council members May 25.
It will be the department's eighth thermal-imaging camera, designed to ''see'' through smoke and sense objects.
''What it allows you to do is, in a smoke-filled room where you can't see anything, by using this camera, you can identify the heat of certain things,'' said Joel Gordon, spokesman for the Plantation Fire Department. ''The optimum scenario is if we're searching a room for a trapped victim, we can see them based on their body heat.''
The imager will be mostly used to find people, pets and even fire trapped between walls, Gordon said. It cost $12,245 and was planned in the budget.
''We have had this equipment and have been continually adding to and replacing as necessary for a number of years,'' Mayor Rae Carole Armstrong said. ''It does provide a real safety tool and a real strong piece of firefighting equipment for our firefighters.''
Because the imager reads heat rather than light, it gives firefighters better navigation through fires, Gordon said.
The device resembles a video camera with a large red box attached to it and has a small handle on the bottom.
''We've used them quite frequently. We've located fires in walls that wouldn't have been found until they made their way to the roof,'' said Gordon. ''We've identified root causes of what would be fires.''
The devices have been used with ''tremendous success'' and have found several pets, but luckily they have not been needed to find people yet, Gordon said.
Armstrong said the City Council is trying to equip all fire vehicles and all fire stations with the thermal imagers. She said the city has been using the technology for about four years.
''The features are such that we consider it to be extremely vital both to the firefighters and the persons to be rescued,'' Armstrong said.
The imagers are placed on fire-rescue trucks that respond to calls first, Gordon said.
''As far as firefighting gear, I think the thermal camera is probably the most technologically advanced thing that fire services has made in years,'' Gordon said.
The fire department is also making technological strides outside of fire-rescue equipment, adding to their stations to increase effectiveness.
They are hoping to add a computer-aided dispatch system that would help facilitate emergency call response.
The system would do everything from identifying the fastest routes to a location to providing medical history on a resident who may have called in before.
Negotiations are currently taking place for the dispatch system, so that's for further down the road, Gordon said.
The mayor said she is happy with the technological advances Plantation is continuing to make.
''Anything you can do to provide a safety tool for your firefighters and a greater opportunity to provide rescue where rescue is needed, and to understand what the fire is doing and where it is, it's . . . great,'' Armstrong said.
