Island Packet
January Holmes, the Island Packet
June 17, 2001
Hilton Head, N.C.–Some Hilton Head Island firefighters can see through walls. It’s not a superhuman power, but a tool called a thermal imager that detects victims still inside burning buildings and helps firefighters rescue them without searching room to room.
说:“这是救生技术上尉迈克尔·Mayers of Town of Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue Division’s Palmetto Dunes fire station, which recently received the tool. “There’s a lot of confusion in a fire. We’re in an environment we’re not used to–and there is smoke. We spend most of our time trying to find our way around.”
The $16,500 thermal imager, funded through the department’s budget, looks like a handheld video camera, but shows black and white images on a small television screen, Mayers said. It detects, through infrared technology, heat emitted from any object within 600 feet. The hotter the object, the lighter it will show onscreen.
Mayers said it usually takes firefighters five to 10 minutes to fully search a house, but the imager cuts that time in half.
The thermal imager also can be linked to a monitor in a fire truck so the crew’s commander can track the movements of firefighters inside a burning building, Mayers said. “Say there’s a fire in a school and we don’t know where to go,” he said. ” The teacher can look on the monitor with one of our men and tell us exactly where to go and which turns to make to rescue someone.”
The imager also can find burned circuits and hot spots in a structure that may ignite. The Palmetto Dunes firefighters haven’t directly saved lives with the imager yet, but it has prevented several structures from being engulfed.
“Something like this for us is a godsend. It makes finding fire victims safer, it saves time, and it saves lives,” Mayers said.
The fire and rescue division hopes to get another imager this year, and Bluffton Fire Chief Mike Cahill said his department also is slated to get an imager this year.
Savannah’s Southside Fire Department, which serves communities surrounding the city, has been using its five thermal imagers since last October.
“Thermal imagers save time,” said Hugh Futrell, assistant chief of the department. “In a fire, we can get tied up at a scene for a few hours. Now we can locate the source of a fire in about 15 minutes and have units ready to respond to other calls.”
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