3 Bullard makes the Eclipse LDX TIC that weighs 1½ pounds and has a 3½-in
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Posted: Jan 7, 2016
By Alan M. Petrillo
Thermal imaging cameras (TICs) allow firefighters to see outlines of hot spots in smoky or pitch-black settings, whether those spots are humans or hot areas within a building.
Most TICs are handheld units, although some have been installed on apparatus, like on the tips of ladders, platforms, light towers, and masts. And, some self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) makers have been working on integrating a TIC into their controllers so images can be shown in a heads-up display (HUD).
TIC Offerings
FLIR Systems Inc. has been in the TIC fire market since 1999, says Keith Sawyer, FLIR’s sales and distribution manager for the fire service. “We introduced our K series with the K40 and K50 in January 2013 and two years later replaced them with the K45 and K55 TICs, also adding the K65,” he says. “In the K45, we added flexible scene enhancement (FSX), which increases the contrast ratios in blacks and whites and makes corners and edges sharper in the image.” The K55 has the same resolution, look and feel, and battery as the K45 but allows image and video capture. “It can take up to five minutes of video, play it back on the camera, and store up to 200 videos, which is 1,000 minutes of video capture,” Sawyer says. FLIR’s K65 TIC is its National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)-compliant model that also offers in-camera video capture and storage for up to 200 five-minute clips and has a screwed-down battery lock that makes the unit explosion-resistant and intrinsically safe, Sawyer points out.
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| 1 FLIR Systems Inc. makes the K65 TIC that has in-camera video capture and storage of up to 200 five-minute clips. (Photo courtesy of FLIR Systems Inc.) |
FLIR also makes the K2 point-and-shoot TIC as well as an aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) model. “Our ARFF model is a hard-shell box-type TIC that often is mounted at the bottom of an aerial platform or on the end of a boom,” Sawyer notes, “and has pan-tilt-zoom features as well as high-resolution imaging and high frame rates.”
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| 2 A firefighter views the thermal imaging screen on a FLIR Systems Inc. K55 TIC. (Photo courtesy of FLIR Systems Inc.) |
Wells Bullard, vice president of Bullard, says her company got into thermal imaging in 1998, two years after the technology was declassified by the military. “We designed a thermal imaging tool for firefighters that is extremely durable, simple to use, and ergonomic,” Bullard says. The Eclipse LDX is Bullard’s most popular TIC model, she notes, with a 3½-inch display and an ergonomic design that fits in the palm of a hand. “It weighs only 1½ pounds, is exceptionally durable, and gives an extremely clear image in ambient and high-temperature environments,” she adds.
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3 Bullard makes the Eclipse LDX TIC that weighs 1½ pounds and has a 3½-in
Read more
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- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Jan 7, 2016
By Alan M. Petrillo
Thermal imaging cameras (TICs) allow firefighters to see outlines of hot spots in smoky or pitch-black settings, whether those spots are humans or hot areas within a building.
Most TICs are handheld units, although some have been installed on apparatus, like on the tips of ladders, platforms, light towers, and masts. And, some self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) makers have been working on integrating a TIC into their controllers so images can be shown in a heads-up display (HUD).
TIC Offerings
FLIR Systems Inc. has been in the TIC fire market since 1999, says Keith Sawyer, FLIR’s sales and distribution manager for the fire service. “We introduced our K series with the K40 and K50 in January 2013 and two years later replaced them with the K45 and K55 TICs, also adding the K65,” he says. “In the K45, we added flexible scene enhancement (FSX), which increases the contrast ratios in blacks and whites and makes corners and edges sharper in the image.” The K55 has the same resolution, look and feel, and battery as the K45 but allows image and video capture. “It can take up to five minutes of video, play it back on the camera, and store up to 200 videos, which is 1,000 minutes of video capture,” Sawyer says. FLIR’s K65 TIC is its National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)-compliant model that also offers in-camera video capture and storage for up to 200 five-minute clips and has a screwed-down battery lock that makes the unit explosion-resistant and intrinsically safe, Sawyer points out.
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| 1 FLIR Systems Inc. makes the K65 TIC that has in-camera video capture and storage of up to 200 five-minute clips. (Photo courtesy of FLIR Systems Inc.) |
FLIR also makes the K2 point-and-shoot TIC as well as an aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) model. “Our ARFF model is a hard-shell box-type TIC that often is mounted at the bottom of an aerial platform or on the end of a boom,” Sawyer notes, “and has pan-tilt-zoom features as well as high-resolution imaging and high frame rates.”
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| 2 A firefighter views the thermal imaging screen on a FLIR Systems Inc. K55 TIC. (Photo courtesy of FLIR Systems Inc.) |
Wells Bullard, vice president of Bullard, says her company got into thermal imaging in 1998, two years after the technology was declassified by the military. “We designed a thermal imaging tool for firefighters that is extremely durable, simple to use, and ergonomic,” Bullard says. The Eclipse LDX is Bullard’s most popular TIC model, she notes, with a 3½-inch display and an ergonomic design that fits in the palm of a hand. “It weighs only 1½ pounds, is exceptionally durable, and gives an extremely clear image in ambient and high-temperature environments,” she adds.
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3 Bullard makes the Eclipse LDX TIC that weighs 1½ pounds and has a 3½-in
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Posted: Jan 7, 2016
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Chris Mc Loone |
I usually shy away from using this space as a means to describe what is in the current issue, but this month I’m going away from that approach because you need to read one article in particular. You need to read it, cut or print it out, and post it everywhere you can.
Chris Daly’s article this month addresses total stopping distance. We are all taught to be defensive drivers, to be watching for and ready for the unexpected. The idea is to prevent accidents from happening by driving under control and not too fast so that when something happens, we can stop in time. What Daly’s article does is give us a bit of math to digest when it comes to stopping a fire apparatus and reveals an element of stopping a vehicle that we don’t pay enough attention to.
I was in an apparatus accident once, and I was the driver. As luck would have it, I was driving at a speed that was quick enough to get where we were going but slow enough to avoid a real catastrophe. A passenger vehicle is not going to win in an accident with a fire apparatus, particularly when the car runs a stop sign. When all was said and done, I skidded to a stop; ended up rubbing a curb; and practically gave my officer a heart attack because, as he said, he was watching a utility pole get closer and closer. In the end, I did not hit the vehicle. The other vehicle hit me-much to the chagrin of my chief at the time, since the truck I was driving was only five months old.
I’ve always thought that although it could have been worse, the outcome of the incident was positive in that there were no injuries to firefighters or to the driver of the striking vehicle. However, after reading Daly’s article, I’m not so sure there isn’t more I could have done to avoid the situation altogether.
When we talk about total stopping distance, we’re not only talking about how long it takes the vehicle to slow down and come to a complete stop. I’ve often thought that as long as I drive under control and appropriately for the road conditions, that I’ll be able to get us to the incident and back without any problems. But, one component of the total stopping distance is the time it takes me to register that something is happening and react to it. If you think about it, I got hit, which means I was driving fast enough that I did not have enough total stopping distance to bring the truck to a halt and avoid the accident. It was a sobering realization-especially since I always thought I had done a pretty good job.
Don’t be afraid of the math in the article. It’s necessary to determine the distance you are going to need to stop an emergency vehicle at different speeds. And for the veteran chauffeurs out there, don’t think that just because you have a ton of years behind the wheel that you are any better off than the rookie driver. The math is the math, and physics are physics. Neither discriminates based on driving experience.
Again, read the article, cut it out or print it out, and make sure you make the concept of total stopping distance part of your driver/operator training.
Final Thought
After attending a vehicle extrication evolution involving a fire apparatus at FDIC International 2015, I wrote an editorial describing the evolution and stated that we need to start treating extrication from apparatus the way we treat RIT-preparing to save our own. I asked, “How often do we drill on how and when to call a Mayday, on self-rescue techniques, and on RIT? The one area we do not drill on is f
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