T-L Photos/ROBERT A. DEFRANK The Cumberland Trail Fire District has a new thermal imaging camera, thanks to a donation from Ascent Resources. Capt. Curtis Kyer demonstrates. Pictured are Assistant Fire Chief Dan Grady, from left, Fire Chief Tim Hall, and Brent Riggle and Amanda Finn of Ascent Resources.

ST CLAIRSVILLE — The Cumberland Trail Fire District is adding a thermal imaging camera to its lifesaving equipment, thanks to a generous donation from Ascent Resources.

The natural gas and oil exploration and production company provided $6,544 for the device.

Fire Chief Tim Hall said thermal imaging devices are invaluable to firefighters during various operations.

“It had many applications to the fire service. One is enhancing our ability during search-and-rescue, entering homes, trying to find individuals that may be trapped, helping us identify hot spots in the home after the fire’s out … so we can quickly and efficiently make sure that the fire’s completely extinguished,” he said.

Hall said the camera has applications in situations such as when searching in a wooded area where an individual might not be easily visible to the naked eye.

Brent Riggle, external affairs coordinator with Ascent Resources, said the company was happy to donate after learning of the various ways it could enhance safety.

“Chief Hall is great, our (Environmental Health and Safety) teams speak very highly of him and his department, and when he reached out and explained what the camera does, we thought with the additional safety it’s going to provide him and his crew, we thought it was a great opportunity,” Riggle said. “We’ve got a lot of employees that live and work in Belmont County as well as in Cumberland Trail’s service area.”

Capt. Curtis Kyer demonstrated the camera’s use, showing how the camera can detect a handprint moments after a surface is touched.

“It is to pick up differences in heat,” he said. “We can use this in a structure fire to find the fire if it’s full of smoke.”

He said the device detects differences in fractions of degrees, allowing firefighters to pick up images of individual bodies during a fire.

“It’s very sensitive,” he said. “If a child walks across the floor in their bare feet, we would be able to find the footprints or the handprints, that’s how sensitive it is. Once we think we have the fire out, there’s a lot of smoke. We want to find the heat. We want to find all the things that are still possibly able to burn.

“We use it very often,” he said, adding the camera is useful in detecting heat sources when firefighters are dispatched to inspect suspicious odors and something is overheating.

Kyer said the thermal camera will join the others owned by the department. Each of the district’s four fire engines will now have a camera.

“They’re a very, very important piece of equipment, but we were still needing one more,” Kyer said. “Every fire truck we have is used for a different purpose, so if we don’t have one for every vehicle, we may not have it on the scene that we need to go to. So by having one on each apparatus we never have to worry about missing that piece of equipment.”

St. Clairsville Councilwoman Linda Jordan, who also serves as the city’s representative on the fire board, said the device was a welcome tool in firefighting.

“It’s going to be very beneficial because it’s going to be an addition to what we already have,” she said. “We are just thrilled to death over this donation.”

The fire district has been planning numerous improvements to the Main Station building following the passage of a replacement levy in May. Hall said the district hopes to bid the project by the end of this year.

“We’re waiting for the city of St. Clairsville’s engineer and zoning to approve. We need a couple of variances because of our additional stormwater runoff,” Hall said. “They’ve been very accommodating, and the administration and council is working with us. We’re waiting for those plans to get back and get the green light from the engineers to make sure we’re dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s and we’ll be moving forward.”