Fire in their eyes

Deepa Bharath

Until a few weeks ago, Costa Mesa firefighters had to battle fiery

blazes as if they were blindfolded.

They would rush into a room and look for survivors in dark rooms

and pitch black alcoves, a situation almost always worsened by a

thick blanket of smoke.

Now they have a camera that virtually becomes a firefighter’s

eyes, one they can hold in the palm of their hands and that sees

through the dark and the smoke.

It’s called a thermal imaging camera and looks pretty much like a

camcorder that fits snugly in a fireman’s coat pocket. On its

3-inch-by 3-inch screen, firefighters can see exactly what is

happening in the room, said Costa Mesa Fire Capt. Scott Broussard,

who pushed for the purchase of the cameras.

“It works on the scientific principle that every object holds heat

differently,” he said. “A chair or a table holds heat differently

than a body.”

Firefighters have often wasted several precious seconds --

minutes, even -- navigating blindly before they can perform a rescue,

Broussard said.

The cameras may be used as night vision goggles and as a

temperature sensor to identify smoldering fires within walls that

could rekindle a seemingly extinguished blaze.

“Most times, we don’t know for sure if all the fires are out,”

Broussard said. “With this camera, we can scan across the walls of a

building and get temperature readings, and if we come across a spot

in the wall that gets a very high temperature reading, we know we

need to get inside that wall.”

That will keep firefighters from having to break down large

portions of walls to detect the smoldering fires, he said.

“This way, we’re not causing unnecessary damage,” Broussard said.

“We only need to break a small area on the wall which we know for

sure has been affected.”

Such hidden fires are dangerous because they can smolder for hours

and suddenly rekindle the fire, he said.

Costa Mesa now has three of these thermal imaging cameras. They

cost a little more than $9,000 a piece and work on rechargeable

batteries. At least one camera will be available to units responding

to structural fires within the city, Broussard said.

The cameras are well worth their price, Battalion Chief Gregg

Steward said.

“We hope to get more cameras in the future,” he said. “But it’s

not likely to happen any time soon, with the state budget shortfall.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].