As thousands of firefighters are preparing to attend FDIC International this month, I started thinking back on some of the FDICs I have attended during my 32 years in the fire service and the information I learned thanks to this conference.
For 90 years, FDIC has been a gathering place for firefighters to share their wisdom and experiences with each other while receiving the latest training in fire safety and equipment. The training given to firefighters at FDIC throughout the years has contributed greatly to protecting the lives of civilians and firefighters worldwide.
Whenever I had the opportunity to attend FDIC, I was impressed with the advances in technology that were being applied to self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), turnout gear, fire helmets, fire apparatus, and thermal imaging cameras (TICs). The use of thermal imaging technology in the fire service has been available only since the late 1990s - a relatively young technology to the fire service compared to SCBA. Not until the late 1990s did TICs become accessible to fire departments in the United States and only to some departments that had the funds to acquire this new technology.
The first TICs were large, heavy, and bulky and certainly nowhere near as technologically sophisticated as the TICs today. The first adopters were the truly progressive fire departments that jumped at this new technology, and very soon other departments followed.
![1 In today’s fire service, it is common to see a TIC on every apparatus. (Photos courtesy of Bullard](/content/dam/fa/print-articles/volume-22/issue-4/1704FA_Thermal1.jpg) |
1 In today’s fire service, it is common to see a TIC on every apparatus. (Photos courtesy of Bullard.) |
Fire departments quickly saw the value in thermal imaging and began to deploy TICs for specific operations such as search and rescue and overhaul. Soon fire departments found more consistent uses for TICs that included fire attack, size-up, and hazmat. Fire departments quickly realized the powerful capability and versatility of this tool. The evolution of thermal imaging technology was underway, much like the evolution of SCBA. When the SCBA was first introduced to the fire service, it was a revolutionary concept, much like the introduction of TICs. SCBA gave firefighters the ability to breathe in dangerous environments, and TICs gave firefighters the ability to see in dangerous environments. Both technologies are the perfect combination for firefighters to safely survive and maneuver in smoked-filled environments.
As technology evolved, so did the design of the TIC. Today, the fire service is afforded a range of handheld TICs, with most models now weighing three pounds or less and incorporating technology that yields clear, crisp imagery that shows cool scenes and high-temperature environments. A hands-free TIC integrated into a firefighter’s SCBA is also available to the fire service. The ability to make TICs even smaller, more integrated, and more capable will most certainly increase in the coming years.
TICs today are powerful, multipurpose devices capable of providing a wealth of information to firefighters. It is common to see a TIC on every apparatus. The fire service needs to make the next move toward securing a TIC for every firefighter. The technology is too important and too enabling not to eventually be standard equipment for every on-duty firefighter. Every firefighter has an SCBA; why doesn’t every firefighter have his own TIC? In past years, the price of a TIC was affordable only to large fire departments. Toda