| Evans Center Saves Thousands with Thermal Imaging Camera |
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When the Evans Center Fire Company paid almost $18,000 for an Argus Thermal Imaging Camera back in 1996, they knew they were making an important investment in fire fighting technology. They also know they’d get a positive return on their investment - they just didn’t know when.
Recently, that investment paid off in a big, big way. Evans Center and the Angola Fire Department were dispatched around 4:20am on September 23 to the report of heavy smoke coming from KH Industries on Delameter Road near Eden-Evans Center Road in the Town of Evans.
| Thick black smoke was discharging from every vent hole when Evans Center Chiefs Dennis Allen and Tiger Schmittendorf arrived. As the chiefs radioed their findings and established a command post, the building owner arrived and started unlocking doors, saving valuable time for the arriving fire fighters to gain access to the industrial facility. Evans Center Asst. Chief Bob Zamrok established operations command at the main point of entry. |
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Angola Engine 1 arrived first and their attack crew consisting of Charles Klepfer II and Gary Camus, along with Asst. Chief Schmittendorf entered through a man door at the manufacturing area on the south side near the heaviest smoke discharge. They were met by a blanket of smoke that had banked down to about 3 inches off of the floor.
Visibility was zero, and fire undetectable as the team crawled and felt their way through the structure. However, Chuck Klepfer - the fire fighter on the nozzle, had one advantage. He worked at KH Industries. Even despite his knowledge of the building layout, progress was slow due to the intense smoke conditions.
Moments later, Evans Center Engine 1 arrived and Capt. BruceGreen Jr., armed with their thermal imaging camera, followed the hose line into the building and met up with the attack team about 30 ft. in from the man door. Having an unfair advantage of visibility, Green was able to lead the team to the seat of the fire and they blindly followed. A back-up team was ordered in to support the attack operations as horizontal and vertical ventilation efforts were taking place simultaneously.
Although the camera does allow the fire fighters to see the fire and is capable of detecting minute differences in temperature, it does not afford very effective depth perception. So, it was difficult for the firemen to determine the true volume of fire they were dealing with. In fact, until the camera was pointed downward, they could not even tell that they were literally kneeling in the base of the fire.Once the smoke lifted enough for the crew to see what was actually burning, Schmittendorf radioed for Evans Center’s Pro-Pak Foam Unit to attach to the end of the hose line. This proved to be very effective in smothering the large area of coiled cables, pallets and cardboard boxes that were burning.
Although the building contents suffered a great deal of smoke damage, the fire was contained to a very small area and water damage was minimized, thanks largely due to the visibility afforded by the thermal imaging camera. Thousands of dollars in damage were saved by Evans Center’s investment in this newly implemented technology.
As one of the fire fighters commented, "The smoke was so dense and the visibility so poor that the fire would have found us first - if it wasn’t for the thermal imaging camera."
Evans Center was assisted at the scene by fire fighters from Angola, Lake Erie Beach, Highland and North Evans. Town of Evans Fire Marshal Bob Corsi’s initial investigation indicated the fire to be electrical in origin.
Evans Center’s thermal imaging camera investment was instrumental in two other key situations in recent years. The damage caused by a lightning strike, which touched off an attic fire in a residence in Lake Erie Beach’s territory, was minimized to one bedroom thanks to the camera.
A mid-Winter chimney fire in Highland’s district was muted by the thermal imaging camera’s ability to pinpoint the exact hot spot and prevented fire fighters from having to tear open walls on multiple floors to chase down the exact location of the fire.
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