LOCATIONSDanbury, CT. — February 25, 2026 — Bullard, the Kentucky-based manufacturer of high-quality personal protective equipment, including thermal imagers for emergency responders, today announced that Captain Bart McCleary and the Danbury Fire Department have been inducted into the company’s Save-A-Life Club. The recognition follows Captain McCleary’s role in locating and rescuing a severely injured motor vehicle crash victim during an early-morning search in freezing conditions, aided by a Bullard thermal imaging camera.
“Captain McCleary’s experience, judgment, and ability to quickly interpret what the thermal imager was showing him led to a life being saved,” said Wells Bullard, President and CEO of Bullard. “This is exactly why we design our equipment around the realities firefighters face in the field.”
At approximately 4:55 a.m. on November 30, 2025, Danbury Fire, Police, and EMS were dispatched to a high-speed single-vehicle crash involving a car that struck a tree. Responders arrived to find extensive vehicle damage but no occupant inside. A check with the local hospital confirmed that no patient had been transported from the crash, raising immediate concern.
With temperatures near 33 degrees Fahrenheit, darkness, and a large undeveloped hillside near the airport approach zone, Danbury Fire organized a coordinated line search across the area while police searched nearby roadways. During the search, Captain McCleary, a 38-year veteran of the department, identified a heat signature approximately 700 feet from the crash site using a Bullard thermal imaging camera. The device detected a temperature of approximately 95 degrees Fahrenheit against the cold background.
Recognizing the heat source as a possible human target, Captain McCleary followed the signature and located the injured and hypothermic victim lying in dense brush. Firefighters removed the victim from the area and transported them to a trauma center, where the individual was expected to make a full recovery.
Incident Commander Deputy Chief Bernie Meehan, a paramedic with more than 40 years of experience, stated that without the rapid discovery during the search, the victim likely would not have survived.
Created in 2001, the Bullard Save-A-Life Club has recognized over one hundred fire departments and first responders who use Bullard equipment to help perform rescues under extraordinary circumstances.
The award was presented to Captain McCleary and the Danbury Fire Department during a Save-A-Life recognition event attended by department leadership, responding agencies, and community members. The Department received a certificate of recognition, Save-A-Life Club challenge coin, Bullard patch, metal shield, and a flame of recognition on the Save-A-Life Club wall at the Bullard manufacturing facility in Cynthiana, Kentucky.
About Bullard
Founded in 1898, and the inventor of the original hard hat in 1919, Bullard is a global company ingrained in personal protective equipment (PPE) across multiple industries including Emergency Responder, Life Sciences, and Industrial Health and Safety. With their global headquarters and manufacturing facility in the heart of central Kentucky (USA), Bullard is a fifth-generation family-owned enterprise with additional locations in Europe and Asia. Bullard’s product lines include hard hats, thermal imagers, fire and rescue helmets, supplied air respirators, powered air-purifying respirators, and air quality equipment. Bullard has a rich history of solving customer problems in innovative ways with high quality products. Bullard’s vision is to advance human safety to enable long, healthy, production lives through innovative solutions.
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