Everett Fire Chief Murray Gordon holds the Evolution 4000 thermal imaging camera. The camera uses technology once reserved for the military to find heat sources, including people. A house is burning and people are trapped inside.
Dense smoke is everywhere.
If the fire happened today, firefighters would be blind. The only way to find the victims would be to crawl through the smoke and feel around the walls of each room, patting the floors. The cameras convert heat energy into a visible image for firefighters, allowing them to spot people, fire and anything else that produces more heat than its surroundings. The gadgets, long available in the military but only recently converted to civilian use, represent the most significant advance in fighting fires since the self-contained breathing apparatus, Everett Fire Chief Murray Gordon said. Firefighters will be able to see victims and find the source of fire, even fire hidden in a wall or ceiling.