New camera helps BP firefighters

Nobody wants to be in a fire, but if it happens, the Blooming Prairie community’s chances of survival recently increased thanks to Blooming Prairie Fire Department’s acquisition of a thermal imaging camera.
Blooming Prairie First Assistant Fire Chief Mike Ingvalson said the camera picks out different temperatures of objects it’s pointed at, so firefighters can scan a smoke-filled room and find people in a couple seconds rather than crawling around the whole room and finding them by hand.
The decrease in the time it takes to find people, he said, greatly increases their chance of survival.
“The less time you’re in a smoke-filled room, the greater chance you have of surviving. Down to seconds could mean the difference between life or death,” he said.
The thermal imaging camera also improves firefighters’ chances of survival because it can be used to find a firefighter who gets trapped or lost.
In addition to finding people, Ingvalson said the camera makes the firefighters’ job safer.
“We can monitor what the room temperature is with the camera. It has a little display in the corner that shows you what the actual temperature is. When we get close to that 500-degree mark, you really need to start being cautious if you should be in there or not because our gear doesn’t take much more than that for an extended period of time,” he said.
Another way the camera helps firefighters do their job more effectively is by helping them find the source of the fire.
“From the exterior, you could go around the windows and see if one area or one room is hotter than another so it might identify where the fire is rather than just trying to guess or tell by the smoke,” Ingvalson said.
If firefighters must enter a structure on fire, he said the camera will help them identify where a fire is located within a wall. By knowing that, firefighters can just take apart the wall where it is and won’t have to damage as much property trying to find the hot spot.
The purchase of the camera was made possible by a grant from Minnesota Energy Resources, in partnership with Wisconsin Public Service Foundation. The remaining cost was covered by a donation from the City of Blooming Prairie and the community’s support of the fire department’s Brat and Sweetcorn Feed fundraiser.
On behalf of the Blooming Prairie Fire Department, Ingvalson expressed his appreciation of the community’s and businesses’ assistance in getting this tool through their support of the department’s fundraisers and donations at the end of the year.