Fire Dept. to Get High Tech Thermal Camera
The Provost Fire Department will be using cutting edge technology when it soon acquires a special camera that uses thermal detection processing and displays it on a screen as an image for the user to see.
The hand held device weighs about five pounds and can display the outlines while being used in dark, smoky or foggy conditions with ease.

Hot spots in fires can easily be pin-pointed by just aiming the camera.

It’s believed that Provost will be the first fire department in the area to get the technology that was originally developed and used as a military vision aid during the Gulf War called Desert Storm a decade ago.

Other communities such as Lloydminster, Camrose and Wainwright are studying a similar purchase and some people are looking at fund raising to pay for the unit.

A camera, depending on its features costs between $25,000 and $30,000 with the Provost Lions Club stating that they will pay for it.

It’s now up to the local volunteer firemen to finish analyzing three different brands of camera before one is chosen.

One of three salesmen was at the fire hall recently to demonstrate his brand of camera.

Deputy fire chief Barry Johnstone said that he will be at the Lions Club meeting tonight (Wednesday, April 2) to show off the camera to the service club members.

Another fireman, Neil Whiting meanwhile says he is “ impressed” with the technology.

In addition to finding hot spots in fires, the camera can also locate people in such situations as car crashes. Johnstone says there has been one documented case where rescue people found an unconscious man, took him to hospital and when the man awoke, was asked where his wife was. A radio call went back to the scene and people looked in and near the crashed vehicle but did not see anyone in the vehicle or nearby dark scene It was only after the special camera unit was used that the woman was spotted some distance away from the scene, leaning up against a tree.