Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue shared a firefighter training video on issues involved in large area residential search operations.
The purpose of this video is to instruct search techniques in homes with modern, “open” floor plans. Searching for victims in “great rooms”—in which the living room, family room, and dining room are in one large space that open to the kitchen—requires special techniques. Great rooms are difficult to search because the space is not divided by walls that provide firefighters orientation in heavy smoke and reduce the size of space to be searched.
The video is unique because it features infrared images viewed through a thermal-imaging camera (TIC) and footage taken by a drone operating inside the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Training Facility warehouse prop. If the TIC views appear grey and lack contrast, that’s because everything, including the firefighters, are at the same ambient temperature. This is just one of the limitations of TICs that must be understood before viewing the video. Other limitations that must be understood is a TIC view’s lack of depth perception and peripheral vision. Accordingly, this video is not intended to be a “standalone” training resource.
Video By Robert Hernandez. Thanks to Bill Gustin.
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