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Highlands Today

Thermal Cameras Belong In Every Local Fire Department

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Highlands Today Staff

Published: December 16, 2007

Sebring firefighters received an important tool recently that will save lives. It's time for every fire department in Highlands County to get one of these, and the sooner the better.

Thermal-imaging cameras allow firefighters to immediately scan through walls and smoke-filled rooms to find trapped victims and hot spots that could re-ignite a fire. It's one of the single best technological gadgets produced in recent years that saves lives.

It's obvious that these cameras allow quick location of anyone trapped in a fire, but it also saves firefighters from risking their own lives by having better knowledge of where the heat is located, and where it's not. With the technology to "see" into the wall to find hot spots, firefighters don't have to destroy walls searching for these areas that pose more fire danger.

Now these cameras are affordable enough that we must make sure every department has them.

The cost of these thermal cameras was $12,000 for two of them. The price has come down in recent years, and probably will continue to cost less in coming years. However, even at their current price, it's little compared to just about any other tool we can supply our firefighters these days.

Many new technologies promise all kinds of things, and sometimes they deliver. This camera is the real deal, and whatever our cities and county must trim in their budgets to make them available to other departments will be money well spent.

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