Digital camera aids fire inspectors
Sean Englert
Captain
Pantex Fire Department
Amarillo, Texas
We recently started using digital photography in our fire department. This technology is truly a great asset to our mission. We use digital cameras to develop training materials, create operator aids, assist with investigations, and generate public education materials.
One of our most innovative uses of digital cameras is in fire inspections. Our fire inspectors carry compact digital cameras and photograph code violations and fire hazards for later analysis.
Software programs allow inspectors to draw on images as necessary, highlighting them with arrows or circles. Photos may be sent by e-mail to fire engineers and other experts to assist inspectors in deriving fire hazard solutions.
The photos may also be attached to an e-mail message describing the violation/hazard and sent to those responsible for the property (i.e., owner, manager, or tenant, for example) if they are on-line.
During emergency operations, we use digital cameras to take images of emergency scenes and send them by e-mail or courier to a command post, emergency operations center, hospital emergency department, or other remote location for viewing.
Digital photography provides occupancy history documentation, easily retrieved electronic records, and instant turnaround time between taking and viewing images on a built-in camera screen or personal computer.
