Get The Picture March 2000

Two Firefighters
Narrowly Escape Blaze

A house fire in Monroe, Ohio that took the lives of three civilians on January 8 nearly took the lives of two firefighters who were battling the blaze. Firefighters Andrew Turner and Scott Clasgens narrowly escaped entrapment after a nearby room exploded in flames. Their comrades used the department's Bullard Thermal Imager to find them and lead them to safety.

Monroe Firefighter John King (foreground) with Andy Turner (left) and Scott Clasgens (right).

When firefighters arrived on scene at the early morning blaze, they had a report of up to seven people trapped in the three bedroom ranch. Two search teams were deployed. Jamie Verdin and John King went into one end of the house with a hoseline and a Bullard Thermal Imager. Clasgens and Turner entered the house to search by hand. With visibility of about two feet, they entered a bathroom and found two victims deceased in a bathtub filled with water. When they exited the bathroom, visibility had dropped to zero, and the heat had increased dramatically. Firefighter Clasgens recounted the situation.

"We came out of the bathroom and tried to get out of the house, but there were flames in the stairwell on one end of the hallway, and flames shooting out of the bedroom on the other end. We were trapped in about a three by three space,"he said. "All kinds of things flash through your mind in a situation like that. When we perceived we were trapped, the heat seemed even hotter."

Turner was experiencing the same emotions. "We agreed we were in trouble, "said Turner, 24. "We thought we might not make it out. We thought, 'This is it.' I wondered if I'd see my fiancee, future stepson, and my other loved ones again."

At that point, Firefighter Turner made a distress call on his radio: "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, firefighters trapped."

Firefighters Verdin and King were on their way out of the structure when they heard the call. Using their thermal imager to navigate, they rushed into the hallway, extinguishing flames on the staircase, and found their comrades in about 20 seconds. Clasgens estimates that without the thermal imager, it could have taken three to four minutes for Verdin and King to find them "by feel" in the hallway. Fire Chief Mark Neu said that the situation could have turned out very differently if thermal imaging technology hadnt been available on the scene.

"We could have had two more bodies," Chief Neu said. "I cant tell you how happy I am that we had that camera."

Lessons Learned

Remember, there are 3 ways to protect a victim remove them from the hazard, protect them in place, or remove the hazard. This incident illustrated how an imager, in combination with a hoseline, can quickly identify the hazard (fire) and remove it. It also illustrates how an imager can quickly identify a victim and aid in their removal.

Articles & Resources In This Issue
NEW Training Section - Dramatic Saves - Save-A-Life Club - Lessons Learned

Published by 

Publisher - Tom Kiddle 
Editor - Kevin Halstead 
Managing Editor - Jennifer Marsh 
Chief Writer - Rebecca Scholer 
Technical Advisor - Mike Richardson 
Graphic Artist - Denise Fuson

Get The Picture is printed in the USA and published quarterly by Bullard, an ISO 9001-certified manufacturer of personal protective equipment based in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Bullard product lines include thermal imagers, hard hats, firefighter, police and rescue helmets, supplied air respirators and air quality equipment.

For more information, contact Bullard Inside Sales at 800-227-0423 or visit Bullard's main web site at wvvw.bullard.com

TI Helps Biloxi Firefighters Extinguish Shrimp Boat Fire

On Sunday, December 5, in Biloxi, Mississippi, the local fire department received a report from a casino on the docks.

A fire had been spotted on a shrimp boat docked in Mississippi Sound.

When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting up 20 feet out of the front hold of the 80-foot boat.

In the initial attack, the crew knocked down the fire and made access to the cabin. Firefighter Tony Murphy used the Bullard Thermal Imager to verify that no one was inside the cabin, then passed it off to Firefighter Jason Davis, who scanned the area to look for the seat of the fire.

When Davis saw that the floor of the cabin was hot, he knew immediately that the fire was in the front or middle hold, and alerted his fellow firefighters to evacuate the area. Davis and Firefighter James Geiser found another entry into the burning hold - a 32" hatch in the front of the boat. When Davis stepped down into the smoky hold with the camera, he immediately saw the seat of the fire in the far wall of the small compartment .

"We were able to direct the water to the flame, so we could extinguish it faster. Without the camera, it would have been like walking into a jungle, not knowing where the bear is. It would have been hit and miss."

Firefighter Tony Murphy said the camera also helped firefighters find the best way to ventilate without cutting the $200,000 boat to pieces. "The camera greatly aided us in seeing what we were doing. As a result, it helped us contain the damage and reduce the loss," he said.

Lessons Learned

This incident illustrates that a thermal imager can be used for multiple applications - in this case search and rescue, fire attack, and ventilation. Remember you can use your thermal imager to identify potential ventilation openings in zero visibility and then actually observe with the imager the impact ventilation is having on heat conditions.

Every Fire Department in Madison County, Indiana Equipped with Bullard Thermal Imagers

Christmas came early for Madison County, Indiana firefighters as every fire department in the county received a thermal imager.

The 17 cameras were provided through a grant from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, and were distributed to chiefs at an event in Pendleton on November 18. Madison County is among the first in the nation to equip every fire department with the technology.

At the beginning of 1999, the Madison County Fire Chiefs Association set a goal to place one thermal imager in every county fire department. The organization submitted a grant application for Lilly Gift IV funds to the Madison County Community Foundation and the South Madison Community Foundation. The grant was approved, and the chiefs initiated an evaluation of the best thermal imager on the market, aiming to choose just one.

John Walukonis, Chief of the Richland Township Fire Department, explained why the group wanted to settle on one camera that would be purchased for all departments . "The primary advantage of choosing one camera is that in the event of a mutual aid incident, all chiefs and assistant chiefs are familiar with the equipment used by other departments in the county," Walukonis said.

The first job was to evaluate multiple cameras in a real world firefighting situation. Seven manufacturers were invited to demonstrate their cameras and video capabilities in a house burn. Each group of firefighters used each camera in the smoke-filled house. A lengthy discussion followed, and the field was narrowed to two cameras. The two finalists were then invited to do classroom presentations of their cameras, with a time for discussion afterward.

After this presentation, the Madison County Fire Chiefs Association selected the Bullard Thermal Imager. Walukonis concisely explained why Bullard was the camera of choice. "Firefighters found it to be the most practical, durable, easy-to-handle camera on the market."

NEW Training Section

New Training Section The following section will be a standing feature in Get The Picture, written by Mike Richardson, Thermal Imaging Training Specialist for Bullard.

If you would like to make a topic suggestion, ask a specific question, or want to share information about a thermal imaging training event, please email Mike.

Remember to check out Mike's "Training Section" on the Bullard Thermal Imaging website for additional information .

Tactical Tips

Thermal imagers are primarily being used in structural firefighting in four ways. These include size-up, fire attack, search and rescue and overhaul. This technology is also being used in specialized applications such as Hazmat. The following provides brief notes on how to use your camera for each of these applications.

Size Up

While a thermal imager cannot "see through" solid objects or glass, it will detect very small temperature differences. This allows firefighters to identify heat from a fire that has been transmitted to the outside surface of a structure by conduction, convection, or radiation.

Remember that different types of building construction and building features will show heat conditions differently. Newer energy efficient buildings, with features such as triple pane windows, will hide high-heat levels much more effectively than older buildings.

Fire Attack

Your Bullard Thermal Imager can help you identify heat conditions at ceiling level. Using a reference point, such as the top of a doorway, use your camera to determine if conditions are improving (lifting or clearing) or deteriorating (descending or getting denser).

Use your camera to observe the impact of your water application. If the areas of highest heat are changing from light shades to dark shades on your screen, water application is effective. If the lighter shades are not darkening, the application rate is too low, or water placement is not being directed to the seat of the fire.

Search & Rescue

You should never rely 100 percent on your thermal imager to find your way out of a structure. When conducting a search, you should always maintain a reference point such as a handline or an exterior wall.

Since your camera will help you navigate around obstacles, it is also much easier to deploy a rope as a means of identifying the way out. Remember that due to "thermal inversion," a victim may not always appear to be white or a light shade of gray, therefore it is best to identify a victim based on shape versus shade.

A thermal inversion occurs when an object changes shade on the display of a thermal imager even though the temperature of the object has not changed or has changed very little. This occurs because the background temperature has changed, which results in a change of the relation of the temperature of the object to its surroundings.

Overhaul

When using your thermal imager for overhaul, begin by methodically scanning each room for remaining hot spots. When a light (hot) area is identified, check it for heat with a gloved hand. If no heat is detected this way, check the area with your bare hand.

It is important to remember that a thermal imager is very sensitive, so an area that appears to be a hot spot may only be indicating residual heat. Remember that your camera cannot actually see through materials, so it will only detect a hot spot behind a surface if enough heat is transferred from the burning or smoldering material to the surface on which the device is focused.

Heat transfer is usually significant enough to identify a hot spot behind materials such as plasterboard or paneling, but is more difficult to detect behind more dense materials like wood planks or masonry.

Hazmat

Remember that you can only identify the level of a material in a container if the material is a solid or liquid. You cannot identify the level of a gaseous product unless it has been liquefied. Also remember that you can only identify the level if the material inside is impacting the external temperature of the container.

Heat transfer will not occur if the container has thick walls or is insulated . When attempting to identify a hazmat contaminant in water, it is important to know if the material will float on water. Since a thermal imager cannot "see through" water, it will not detect a hazmat that is mixed in with the water or is settled at the bottom. Remember to compare the specific gravity of the material you are trying to identify to the specific gravity of water (1.0). If its specific gravity is less than 1. 0, the hazardous material will float on water.

Fire Dept. Profile:
Quads to the Rescue in Hamburg, NY

On the hilly terrain of Hamburg, New York, in the southern suburbs of Buffalo, traditional vehicles can't easily be used to retrieve people who are lost or injured. Firefighters from the Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department were retrieving an intoxicated teenager on foot from a local creek gorge when a couple of innovative minds began to think of a better way. With personal experience as ATV operators, Ted Cheney and Tim Howard of the Hamburg VFD put their heads together to design rescue trailers that can be pulled behind All Terrain Vehicles.

This effort became the STAR Team (South Towns ATV Response Team). What started as a simple idea has snowballed into a unique and regionally famous search and rescue team. Since 1997, the STAR team has been called out about 20 times for searches, brush fires and even a plane crash. They are prepared to respond to calls from anywhere in the state.

On their ATVs, they can cover more ground faster, operate on very rough terrain and in snow, and maneuver easily in wooded areas. Though the STAR Team hasn't purchased a thermal imager yet, rescuers have had opportunities to use borrowed equipment on several occasions. Three of the searches were for Alzheimers patients who had wandered away from their homes.

In October in Orchard Park, New York, a mentally handicapped woman wandered away from a Halloween party at her group home, dressed as the queen of hearts. Walking toward a nearby dairy farm, she tripped over a barbed wire fence and rolled into the pasture . The STAR team was called in mutual aid to the Orchard Park Fire Department when the police couldn't locate her. Rescuers from Hamburg included Chief Ralph Spina, Assistant Chiefs Mike Bettcher and Tim Moses, EMS Chief Bridget O'Brien, Captain Ted Cheney and Firefighters Matt Dils, Dave Hustead, Rich Lunz and George Utz. Working together with a borrowed thermal imager, the team conducted an extensive search in about 15 minutes, which helped to narrow the area down to the cow pasture where the woman was found by Orchard Park firefighters.

Cheney explains how the thermal imager helped with this particular search. "The camera really helped with the speed of the search. Without it, we would have spent three or four hours to search the miles surrounding the pasture . With the camera, it was only a 15-20 minute ride," he said.

In another search, Cheney was able to cover four miles of road at night in about ten minutes with a thermal imager. Cameras have also helped the team quickly search corn fields from the perimeter, rather than going down every four rows and destroying some of the crops in the process. Cheney explained how thermal imagers can also help the team stay safe on the job. "Barbed wire fences can be deadly on an ATV. Cameras help us find them easily. We can also see ponds and lakes much easier," he said.

The STAR Team has selected Bullard as their camera of choice. "We tried out several cameras, and the Bullard was easiest to hold, easiest to see, and had a clearer picture. The Bullard also seemed more sensitive as far as picking out ponds and barbed wire fences, and seemed to have a longer range."

Franklin, Indiana Firefighters
Honored as Heroes

Firefighters Tim Coble and Mark Hash get acquainted with Chris, Tanetta, and Zachary Sheets at the Franklin Fire Department's Christmas event on December 11.

Back in October, firefighters Hash and Coble used a Bullard Thermal Imager to rescue two year-old Zachary Sheets from a burning home.

The fire department honored these men in a ceremony held on the Franklin College campus, and the department was inducted into the Bullard Save-A-Life Club.

Fund-raising Tip

Start with Your Community Foundation For fire departments that are raising funds for thermal imagers, the first step is to understand the funding resources available in your county. The best way to gain an understanding is to visit the director of the city or county community foundation. These foundations should be aware of all funding sources in the area, including corporate, private and community donors. They can provide the information you need to get connected to the organizations that have funds available for these types of projects.

Somers, Connecticut Elderly Woman Rescued From Fire In Somers, Connecticut When firefighters were called to the home of Antoinette Pirog at 6:37 p.m. on December 23, they had a report of an elderly paraplegic woman trapped in the house. Chief Robert Sciaretta and Deputy Chief Frank Falcone were the first on the scene, about 10 minutes after the fire had been detected. Smoke was pouring out of the front of the home. "The house was already heavily charged with smoke. We tried to communicate with the victim, but she couldn't hear us." Firefighter Steve Minikowski arrived on scene with the first responding unit and entered the house, along with firefighters Tom Mehl and Tom Van Tassel, with the protection of a hoseline and the Bullard Thermal Imager. Minikowski recounted the scene from his perspective. "I scanned to the right and saw that the kitchen was clear. Then I scanned to the left into the living room, and I saw her right away -about 15 feet away from the camera. She really stood out because she was the hot spot in that particular room. She showed as glowing white on the screen." Minikowski carried Pirog out of the house, while Van Tassel navigated with the thermal imaging camera. The rescue was made about 15 seconds after entry into the burning structure. Pirog was quickly lifted into the ambulance and rushed to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, where she was treated for smoke inhalation and released later that night. Pirog's daughter Ann Zeh credits the thermal imager for saving her mother's life. *"I am sure that my mother would not have survived ... It was a life saver ... I am so thankful for the town of Somers and this new device," Zeh said.* After the rescue, Minikowski worked with another team to find the seat of the fire. Scanning the floor of a bedroom, he found a spot that showed white on the thermal imaging screen, indicating fire in the basement. He and a fellow firefighter descended the stairs and immediately saw that the fire was above and around the furnace. "The camera allowed us to see where the fire was, so we could put it out immediately without unnecessary water damage. This also helped us to dramatically reduce property damage to the home," Minikowski said. *Lessons Learned* This incident illustrates the multiple uses for thermal imaging - in this case, search and rescue, fire attack, and overhaul. Remember to scan all areas continuously looking for victims, fire conditions, ventilation points, and egress routes. Thermal imagers can readily identify fire conditions, such as a basement fire in this case, hidden by ordinary construction features. However, fire conditions may be hidden by heavy or masonry construction .

Bullard Save-A-Life Club The Bullard Save-A-Life Club is a reward and recognition program for firefighters who save a life while using a Bullard Thermal Imager. Firefighters who save a life will be inducted into the Bullard Save-A-Life Club, and will be presented with a plaque andcertificate documenting the life saving event. Their stories will also be shared with other firefighters on Bullard's website and in upcoming issues of Get The Picture. Bullard Inside Sales can help you submit your story. Reach them at 800-227-0423.

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