I am a volunteer firefighter in Peachtree City. Last week, I was in charge of an entry team at a residential house fire. This is what we train for.

On this fire, the house was charged with very thick, visibility-limiting smoke. My team of three entered to locate any victims and find the location of the fire. A team waited at the door with a hose line.

Upon entry, we quickly found out visibility was zero. We left a beautiful sunny day and immediately entered a very alien atmosphere for most people. As most people realize, firefighters wear protective gear to protect our bodies, and air tanks and masks to protect our lungs. We normally carry tools with us, an axe, a halogen bar, or a pike pole to assist us in finding a hidden fire, make forcible entry or in some cases to get the firefighter out of a dangerous situation.

I am writing to thank Chief Reed, the mayor, the city manager, the city council and the citizens for providing our department the latest, leading-edge equipment. This day, we utilized (and we have often) one of our new thermal imaging cameras. Without this camera, my team would have been forced to search the home by "feel", literally in the blind.

Searching for victims without this camera is a very tedious and often dangerous task. Crawling on our knees, feeling walls and doors, trying to find the source of this smoke and any victims. All this time, the fire doing more damage, and possibly a victim losing more fresh air.

This camera will actually "see" the victim through the smoke by recognizing the difference of the heat in the room and the heat of the body.

With the camera, we scanned the first floor through the viewfinder and literally could "see" the fire, the doors, the walls, and the furniture. Turn the camera off, back in the blind.

We easily located the fire at the back of the first floor. We then called for extinguishment and continued our search for victims while the hose team fought the fire.

I am here to tell you that this piece of equipment lessened the property loss of this homeowner. This will save lives. And most importantly for me, it will save firefighter lives. This equipment is well worth the cost.

I thank the city for being proactive and providing our career and volunteer firefighters with the best possible equipment available.

If you are interested in seeing this equipment, please feel free to stop at one of our four fire stations. If you are interested in joining this team, please come to our headquarters at Station 2, located at 105 Peachtree Parkway North and pick up an application.