Thermal Imaging Enhances Wildland Firefighter Safety and Effectiveness

By now, many fire departments are conducting wildland training while government forestry agencies are gearing up for what many anticipate will be a bad year. Global warming is said to have a lot to do with climate change, since right now many regions are flooding while others are in drought conditions.

Wildland firefighters over the years have battled fire from the air and on the ground, relying on their training and many years of experience. Fighting these fires, often in poor visibility and with limited knowledge about burning conditions, with the use of small handheld thermal imaging cameras (TICs) can greatly enhance wildland firefighters’ knowledge of working conditions safely on the ground. Aircraft, be it fixed wing or rotary wing, also have the same capabilities using forward-looking infrared devices mounted to the aircraft to gather intelligence. These reconnaissance flights gather vital information from the air.

Used properly, handheld TICs can help crews more effectively monitor the flank and head of the fire, place personnel in key areas to create control lines, enhance safety during firefighting, and improve the control of prescribed burns. Firefighters can also use TICs to enhance their safety when navigating through smoke, up and down hoselines, and around vehicle ground guide movement.

Applications

Let’s look at a few applications for using TICs when battling a fire.

1. To monitor the flank and head of the fire from the air. On a TIC screen, hotter objects appear as white, cooler objects appear as black, and objects in between these temperatures are displayed in shades of gray. The fire’s location and progress are evident from an aerial position, regardless of sunlight or smoke conditions. This enables firefighters to precisely monitor fire progress in a way otherwise impossible. The ability to monitor the fire progress during low-light conditions means crews can begin operations earlier in the day and end later in the evening, thereby increasing efficiency and decreasing the duration of fires.
2. To place and monitor personnel. In large fire response operations, the placement of personnel is critical to gaining control. Incident commanders can make use of their enhanced visibility through thermal imaging to determine key locations to place wildland firefighte