Every active firefighter prepared to go into fire conditions will now be equipped with the thermal imaging technology, which will "speed up the search for any trapped victims, and will certainly save a life in the future," Bayonne fire Chief Keith Weaver said. Prior to the purchase, the city had 12 active cameras -- one for each captain on a rig, officials said. This meant that fellow firefighters entering fire conditions had to follow the captain in order to get a view of their surroundings in heavy smoke conditions.   "The captains had the old ones and we would follow his direction; we're usually right with him, looking at his camera, while he tells us where to shoot the water,"  said Brian Bomba, a firefighter with the department. "Now that we all have these, we'll be able to see what he sees."

At the city council meeting on Feb. 26, Fire Chief John Mattox revealed the cost will actually be $5.8 million.

Mattox told the council he accepts full responsibility for $2.3 million increase.

“I found out through this process I didn’t ask the right questions when we started this in 2016,” he told the council. “I asked (an architect) what it would cost to build a new building based on square-footage and they told me. What I should’ve asked is ‘what would a project like this cost?’”

Project costs missing from the original estimate included engineering, design elements, furnishings, equipment, additional bunk rooms and site preparation costs.