Fire Grant gives new thermal imaging equipment
Monday, September 25, 2006
Antioch, IL
Lieutenant Chris Lienhardt, Public Information Officer for the Antioch Fire Department was pleased to relate a very important success story about the thermal imaging equipment they received from the FIRE Act grant program.
He stated that they responded to a reported structure fire in a downtown Main Street business establishment. When they arrived, smoke was coming out of every floor of the building and beginning to peek through the roof. They were able to use the imaging camera to quickly locate the source of the fire in a sidewall. They opened up the walls and extinguished the fire.
Chris told us that in the old days, they would have had a tough time locating the fire by the old trial-and-error method. “That camera probably saved about four attached buildings down on Main Street,” Chris noted. “These were all older, attached structures with balloon frame construction. Without the grant-funded equipment we might not have found the fire in time to extinguish the fire and save the structure. The complex of buildings makes up about 25 percent of our downtown business district” Once again we encountered an instance where FIRE Act funds had a direct impact upon the operational efficiency and effectiveness of a grant recipient.
