Firehouse subs donates thermal imaging cameras to Auburn Fire Department
By Natalie Nettles / Intrigue Editor | July 14The sub restaurant founded by firefighters is taking the heat off some local firemen.The Firehouse Subs on Magnolia Avenue donated three MSA 5600 thermal imaging cameras to the Auburn fire department this afternoon.Chris Holmes, area representative for Firehouse Subs, said each camera is valued at around $10,000."We actually take donations from our customers and then we roll it all up together throughout the rest of the company and make donations to different public safety departments," Holmes said.Lee Lamar, fire chief, said the cameras search for and identify heat."A smoky environment where you have zero visibility and you've got a lot of different heat signatures in there, the camera can actually go in and differentiate those signatures and you can identify what's a bed, what's a wall and where a person or a body is," Lamar said.Lamar said the fire department previously only had one thermal imaging camera, which was purchased over a decade ago through fundraising efforts of citizens in the community.Lamar said one of the cameras will be placed in the battalion chief's vehicle, while the other two will be place in the department's ladder trucks."It allows us to find victims in structure fires and emergency operations a lot faster than we could before," Cody Carlson, an Auburn firefighter, said.Lamar said the donation is a tremendous asset to what the fire department can provide to the citizens of Auburn."By far the most important aspect of this is the life saving," Lamar said.
