Local fire departments attend thermal camera training

By Phil Cobb | August 6, 2016 |

Kansas City Fire Fighter Troy Petersen was one of the instructors Wednesday night for area fire districts to learn more about thermal imagery devices and their uses. The program, held in Burlington Junction, was sponsored by the Fire & Rescue Training Institute of the University of Missouri Extension.

Members from several fire departments in Nodaway County attended a training Wednesday evening in Burlington Junction to learn about thermal imaging cameras and their varied uses.

The training was sponsored by the Fire & Rescue Training Institute of the University of Missouri Extension and hosted by the West Nodaway Fire Protection District.

Kansas City Fire Department employees Troy Petersen and Tyler Grosser, who also work as educators through the MU Extension Fire & Rescue Training Institute, conducted the training.

“This is a new thing for us,” said West Nodaway Fire Protection District Chief Bobby Smith. “For us, this is equivalent to attending fire school, except that the school costs us about $200 per individual and this was a free training offered by the Extension office.”

Smith said he was grateful that the training was able to come to Nodaway County, and was free.

“The class, Firefighter Friendly Thermal Imaging, which was delivered to the local fire departments is funded by the Missouri Division of Fire Safety- Fire Safety Education/Advisory Commission,” said MU Fire & Rescue Training Institute Curriculum Specialist Erin McGruder. “We conduct year-round training throughout the state.”

McGruder said in fiscal year 2016 the institute conducted 637 classes to 13,828 students for over 160,000 instructional hours.

“We had representation of students from all 114 counties in the state last year,” McGruder said of the 2016 fiscal year.

McGruder added that because of state, federal, and corporate funding sources many of the trainings are at little to no cost for the first responders throughout the state. Trainings through the institute include fire suppression, leadership and management, technical rescue, EMS, health and safety, emergency management, hazardous materials/ environmental response, and instructor training.

The thermal imagery training allowed local fire departments to learn about additional uses for the thermal cameras other than just the basic house fire.

Smith said several of the departments already have thermal imagery equipment, but may not be utilizing them to their full extent.

“At our station we have had a thermal image device for about two years now, and we’ve used it a lot,” Smith said. “But this training will show us ways to utilize it that we probably haven’t thought of.”

“One of the ways we learned to use the equipment is if someone is lost in a field, or in the woods, we can use thermal image devices to track their footprints, blood, or locate them in the field,” Smith said.

Fire departments were able to bring their current thermal image devices to train with since it will be those devices they will use during an actual event.

In all, Smith thought the training was a great opportunity for his crew, as well as those from surrounding fire districts.

“Our regional director Angie Jones is who set this up for us,” Smith said about the training. “I believe they can do trainings like this for almost anything we ask them to, so it’s just great to have that kind of resource for our departments with so much of our budgets having to go toward equipment upgrades.”