Bartlett's use of drones and thermal imaging revolutionizing fire rescues

BARTLETT, Ill. - Technology is advancing in many areas of our lives more than ever before, including at your local fire department.

In a Fox 32 special report, Kasey Chronis spoke with the Bartlett Fire Protection District about a tool they said has changed how they do their work.

"There’s a saying that the fire service has changed more in the last five years than in the last 20," Bartlett Fire Chief William Gabrenya said. "And that’s just because technology advances are at an incredible pace."

Gabrenya said one of the key advancements has been the use of thermal imaging technology in his department and others.

"It allows us to see through smoke, and it’s a tool that our firefighters use to search buildings, to look for hidden fires," Gabrenya said.

"It’s a great tool to assist our operations," said Lt. Kevin Chapman of the Bartlett Fire Protection District. "We have a thermal imaging camera on every front-line vehicle. So, on our fire engines, on our tower ladder and then our ambulance as well too."

Chapman said the devices can not only help show firefighters where a fire is at, it can also show them the temperature of a fire and if there is someone trapped inside of it.

"The fire obviously is very hot so the color schemes are very bright, vibrant. Humans, civilians, firefighters are typically more white on the screen," Chapman said.

He said those color differences can also help them pinpoint the source of the fire and direct their resources to target that spot.

"We can see heat signatures around the casing of the door. We can see sometimes through drywall, through some building materials as well. So, it definitely gives us a little bit more efficient process," Chapman said.

"Everything today now is oil-based. And so it used to take a room about half an hour before it was fully involved in fire. Today it’s about five minutes. So things have changed a lot in how we view and operate at scenes," Gabrenya said.

"Fires, they spread at a much more faster pace than they used to when I initially started in the fire service, which gives us a limited time clock when we have to get a victim out of a building," firefighter and paramedic Sam Sylvester said.

Sylvester said the thermal imaging can shave minutes off of search times and lead to better outcomes.

"Thermal imaging cameras are just one of those things that we’ve adapted over the years to help us do our jobs better and help save lives and be more safe at our jobs," Sylvester said.

"We’re going from three or four minutes to search a room now down to 30 seconds to be able to scan that room and know that there’s nobody in that room," according to Gabrenya.

The department said the technology also helps them with search and rescue operations.

"Kind of survey the area, looking for the thermal heat signatures from a person. Before, you’d have to line people up all the way next to each other. Three, four feet apart and have them walk very slowly over the path that they’re searching. Now we can just pop a drone up, and we don’t have to send anybody down range," Chapman said.

Part of those new search capabilities is a drone with thermal imaging, which they said takes the technology to a whole new level.

"We had a large mulch fire in town in which we were able to detect the hot spots, so we were able to be more efficient in putting our water onto the fire. It effectively got us out of the situation quicker," Sylvester said.

"From a command standpoint, that allows us to have some situational awareness on the fireground. It allows us to keep track of accountability on the fireground and gives us a wide picture of what’s going on in that fireground," according to Gabrenya.

Bartlett fire officials said they plan to continue to incorporate new technology as it becomes available with the goal of always working towards safer and more efficient operations.

"It’s our mission and vision here that we’ll continue to evaluate technology and if it’s going to improve and be more efficient and safer for us, then we’re going to adopt that technology," Gabrenya said.