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Grant helps buy camera

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Heat can no longer hide in eastern Wythe County.
The Barren Springs Volunteer Fire Department expects to have a new thermal imaging camera in hand by the end of the week after receiving a grant in early September to purchase the pricey tool.
“We have ordered the camera so it should be here in a few days,” said Barren Springs Volunteer Fire Department Chief Curtis Crawford. “It’s really a neat piece of equipment.”
The apparatus detects heat sources, allowing firefighters to find the origin of a fire or a person or animal that may be trapped in a smoky building.
“It will see through smoke and show you where the hot spots are,” Crawford said, adding that the device can detect temperature increases as small as a few degrees.
The fire department only had to pay 5 percent of the overall $9,800 cost of the camera after receiving a $9,310 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.
Crawford said the Barren Springs department received the full amount it sought for the camera.
“It’s been one of those things we’ve wanted for years,” he said. “It’s something that you just don’t go out and buy every day.”
The new camera will be the first one the department will have at its disposal.
After the apparatus arrives, Crawford said it will be kept on one of the department’s trucks. Whichever firefighter enters a building first will clip the camera on his gear and begin sweeping the structure.
Although the thermal camera first will be used to quickly find a fire or detect the body heat of people trapped in a building, Crawford said it also will be useful in “mopping up” a blaze.
By doing a final check of a smoldering building with the camera, Crawford said the Barren Springs firefighters will be able to find lingering hot spots and prevent flames from rekindling.
The chief said the device could also come in handy during a search-and-rescue mission as the camera could pick up the body heat of a person, for example, lost in the woods.
“It will be used,” Crawford said after detailing the camera’s myriad functions.
Crawford said the 22-member department already has responded to around 80 calls this year and he added that he expects that number to hit triple digits by the end of 2008.
When he began volunteering as a Barren Springs firefighter 33 years ago, Crawford said the department often went out on only around 10 calls a year.
He said, though, that increasingly the fire department goes to car wrecks and assists the rescue squad on any calls where there’s a possibility of an entrapment or leakage of flammable materials.
As a result, Crawford said the department’s 20-to-30-call workload of the past five years jumped to around 50 in 2007 and likely will double again this year.
Crawford said he’s also anticipating an increase in flue fires this winter as more people return to heating their homes with wood in the face of rising energy costs.
But with the new camera, Crawford said he hopes the department can ensure that blazes are rapidly squelched with minimal harm to people and their possessions.
“It’s really a good tool for us,” he said. “We’re really glad to get it.”
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .