By Fran Spielman
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Since 2003, Chicago firefighters have been saving lives and protecting their own by using thermal imaging cameras to see through dense smoke and find flames hidden behind walls and ceilings.
Now, the objects they see will be color-coded, alerting them to areas of intense heat. They'll even be able to estimate the surface temperature of an object to gauge the potential danger.
Sixty cameras that represent the latest in thermal-imaging technology are on the way to Chicago firehouses, thanks to a $734,940 contract awarded to Bolingbrook-based Environmental Safety Group.
After the initial delivery, the Chicago Fire Department expects to purchase 25 cameras a year until all 120 existing cameras are replaced.
The old models were purchased in 2003 with a $1.2 million gift from Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. The wunderkind CEO had forged a friendship with Fire Commissioner Ray Orozco after Chase employees raised $50,000 to pay the expenses of an Orozco-led band of firefighters who used their vacation time to help their brethren at Ground Zero in New York after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Dimon-donated cameras are now "starting to fail" or becoming "too costly to maintain," officials said.
Got out just in time
The new generation will have longer-life batteries, rugged casing and a host of other safety features, according to bid documents filed by Environmental Safety Group. They include:
- A "super red-hot feature" to alert firefighters to varying layers of intense heat. "Starting at 500 degrees, heated objects are tinted yellow and gradually transitioned to red as heat levels rise. These colors are translucent to allow viewing through colors," the company wrote.
- Electronic iris control, which allows firefighters to identify potential hot spots when looking for malfunctioning electrical equipment and better view product levels in sealed containers.
- Rapid start-up time of "less than three seconds."
Two years ago, Capt. Frank Cambria rushed into a burning Logan Square building twice to rescue a 12-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother. Cambria began his search of the attic apartment with a thermal imaging camera but without the protection provided by a hose line.
That's not the only rescue assisted by the cameras, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
He recalled a recent fire when a camera aimed at the window of a burning building allowed firefighters to see "a woman hanging, about to jump" through heavy smoke. They managed to save her before she jumped.
When a Rainbow store went up in flames on Commercial Avenue a few weeks ago, thermal imaging cameras were used "to see that heavy fire was traveling in the building's truss roof area," he said.
"Once firefighters saw the extent of the fire, they called for an immediate pullout. Less than three minutes later, the roof caved in. Ten firemen had been inside just before the pullout. The collapse could have been catastrophic," he said.
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