Pueblo Fire Departments crews will soon be getting new technology to help them navigate through situations where fires create limited or no visibility at all.
The city has set aside $30,000 from a public safety grant match fund to purchase thermal imaging cameras that will attach to firefighters’ self-contained breathing apparatuses.
Every firefighting team at the department will be getting a camera, according to Rick Potter, the acting fire chief.
The firefighter who is wearing the camera can lift it up and look around for hot spots and other trouble areas in a structure when a fire is producing so much smoke that visibility is severely hampered.
“When you’re in a zero visibility condition, you will be able to bring that up to your mask and it will see through the smoke and create heat signatures,” Potter said. “In a very simplistic way, it’s like a night vision camera where at night you can’t see, but you bring that night vision camera up and you can all of a sudden.
“There are some limitations, like depth perception, but it does allow you to find hidden hot spots and other things like that.”