Bloomington Fire Department: In-Mask Thermal Imaging Units

The Challenge
 

Fires create life-and-death situations. As said by Jason Moore, Chief of Bloomington Fire Department (BFD), “When someone calls and gives a report of someone being inside a burning building, it transitions your thought process. There’s either going to be something great that happens, or it’s going to be a tragedy.” With every decision and every observation come increasingly high-stakes outcomes. The question here is clear: How can firefighters be helped to always provide the best possible outcome in fire rescue situations? 3M Scott and BFD have settled on one answer in a series of many to this question: in-mask thermal imaging units.
 

The Idea
 

Traditional thermal imaging units require the user to devote one hand to seeing, leaving only one available to interact with their dangerous, and often unstable, surroundings. 3M Scott has pioneered new technology that removes the hindrance of grasping a thermal imaging device while maintaining the life-saving advantage it offers by integrating the technology into respirator masks (which all firefighters already wear). The idea is a simple one: provide every operational firefighter with an in-mask thermal imaging unit to allow them to see through darkness and save as many lives as possible. See a video highlighting the first rescue accomplished by BFD after equipping its firefighters with the 3M Scott Safety Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA).
 

The Cost
 

The cost for the upgrade was just over $1,000 per imaging unit. This cost, while substantial, represents a significantly lower cost than the standard market price of $1,500 per imaging unit.
 

The Benefits
 

Emergency services are most successful when emergent circumstances permanently change as little as possible. Prevention is the ultimate goal. As Chief Moore states in a video produced in partnership with 3M Scott, “When you actually get to see the person that you’ve saved, it’s not just another tick mark of “we made a save”, it’s we saved Pat.” The benefits of this technology are not measured in dollars or instances, but in human lives, something invariably more valuable. These thermal imaging units represent not only an important upgrade to the rescue equipment used by the BFD, but a potential to preserve countless lives in the future as well.
 

Metadata

City Department(s): Bloomington Fire Department

City Point of Contact: Chief Jason Moore

Partner(s): 3M Scott

Partner(s) Point(s) of Contact: N/A

Date Implemented: December 2018

Type of innovation: Equipment/Mechanical