Anybody using them in the fire service?

Looking to buy and need user reports.

Thanks

Give me about a week to find the link.There is a gov't service that GIVES ,for free even,thermal imaging devices,night vision,etc.

E-mail me @ [email protected] in about a week.

The Fire District I work for has 17 of them, (we got the Bullard hand held ones)
They are great (and expensive)...Inside a house fire you can pretty much see everything plain as day with them...and you can use them to search for hot spots in the walls when no flames or smoke are showing.
I have also used it at night on I-95 accident scenes, to locate patients who were ejected out into the woods.

How in the hell do you hide from a Thermal imaging device? Looks like the conventional sniper has a new threat to deal with.

Fire shelter. Reportedly works better turned inside out.....

Our department got a FEMA grant or something. They are getting one soon. Will update with details as I get them.....

Scott

Hmmm....I wouldnt bet my life on it,...the units we have will pick up the body heat left behind in fingerprints, and foot prints (EVEN IF YOU ARE WEARING BOOTS!!).
Unless you can become absolutely 100% the same temperature as your surroundings...you are going to show up on the thermal imager.

One night we had a little training/"playing around on duty" exercise in a vacant building...We basically played "hide and seek" in the pitch black, using the Bullard.
(One guy went and hid, and the rest of the crew hunted him down).
I pointed the imager at the floor, and followed the footprints all the way to the same room as the "victim" before the footprints completely faded away. (then I just swept the room with it)

Even if you cover yourself with a fire shelter...you are STILL going to be warmer than the surroundings.
If you put the fire shelter with the foil side out, the imager wont see YOU,...but the whole shelter will show up as a big, bright white mass.
It cant see through water though, and it is still "line of sight"...so you could hide behind logs/trees, ect. (things that wouldnt look out of place)

My FD bought one several years ago, bought an ISI Vision 3, They should be standard issued equipment IMO. These days you could purchase 2 imagers for what we paid for our one and it will be a better, lighter unit. Call as many industry reps as can and see if they will send you a unit or send one of there reps out to demonstrate it for you, also check out some fire expos, they always have a ton of different imagers to choose from.  Good luck.