LIVERMORE – Firefighters here are kicking off a fund-raising campaign to match grant money to buy a thermal-imaging camera. The department received a $6,000 grant and has to raise $7,500 to get the $12,500 camera they’re interested in.

The grant came from the Galen Cole Family Foundation thermal-imaging camera program.

Firefighter Jake Letendre is chairing the fund-raising effort.

Guild’s Redemption Center, located in the back of Guild’s Country Hardware, is accepting returnable cans and bottles on behalf of the Fire Department, Letendre said.

“We plan to make an appeal to the local community for cash donations,” Letendre said. “We also hope that local merchants in the tri-town area will allow us to place fund-raising containers in their business. The town of Bar Harbor placed two phone calls and received enough money to purchase three cameras; I think we will have to work much harder than that.”

The camera Livermore firefighters are interested in is a MSA thermal-imager, which is quite powerful but “pretty small and compact,” making it easier to handle, Letendre said.

Thermal imaging technology detects heat and allows firefighters to “see” through smoke and darkness to find victims as well as locate hot spots and reduce water damage and property loss.

“The thermal imaging camera is an amazing tool that will enhance our ability to locate victims and attack a fire. It will be of great benefit to our mutual aid towns and agreements,” Livermore Fire Chief Randall Berry said. “This is not a case of duplication of equipment but rather an addition to our ability to support our mutual aid partners with search and rescue and rapid intervention teams to protect our citizens as well as our own firefighters.”

Besides assisting firefighters during a fire, the camera would also decrease time in search and rescue missions, Letendre said.

“We should have had one years ago,” he said.

The camera will be available to the Fire Department after training is completed in June.

In order to retain the camera, the department must raise matching funds of $6,000 by Dec. 1 and the remaining $1,500 by Dec. 1, 2004.

Contributions to the fund can be sent to the Town of Livermore Thermal Imaging Camera Fund at 10 Crash Road, Livermore ME 04253.

The Galen Cole Family Foundation has helped dozens of Maine fire departments acquire thermal imaging cameras by granting a significant contribution to local fund-raising efforts as well as providing training for proper use of the cameras. Other recent beneficiaries include the towns of Canton and Livermore Falls.

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