AUGUSTA – As a line supervisor for the Bangor Fire Department, Lt. Mark Dunbar is well aware of the critical consequences firefighters face as they enter a smoky structure fire.

For decades, it was difficult to save what could not be seen – until the advent of the thermal imaging camera, a high-tech device that allows firefighters to see the heat signatures given off by the human body through the dense smoke. But, as miraculous of an advance as the TIC is, it has remained beyond the reach of many fire departments because of prices ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

For the Galen Cole Family Foundation in Bangor, the need for the device demanded a strategy that could assist more communities in purchasing the camera. In 1997, the foundation launched its Thermal Imaging Camera Program, which provides financial assistance to cities and towns willing to help share the costs of the expensive cameras.

Since then, the foundation has purchased 252 cameras for use in 214 Maine fire departments. The program’s success is now being cited as a national model by the Lessons Learned Information Sharing division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The agency’s representatives presented foundation president Garret E. Cole with a plaque of appreciation during a Friday morning ceremony at the State House.

Dunbar, of the Bangor Fire Department, works with the program as a thermal imaging specialist and trains other departments how to operate the device. The camera, he said, has leveled the playing field for firefighters who formerly had to grope through thick black smoke to find fire victims or their fellow firefighters.

“Firefighters across the state are using thermal imaging cameras to see through the smoke and make those life or death decisions because of Gary Cole,” Dunbar said. “The TIC program the Cole Foundation has put into place has changed the way we do business in the fire service. It’s given us our vision in the fire, it’s given us the ability to track our firefighters, save property and save lives.”

Gov. John E. Baldacci said the Cole family’s generosity is well-known throughout the state. He said now the nation will be able to benefit by replicating the public-private partnership that has provided an invaluable piece of technology to firefighters.

“The entire family has been such a strong positive influence, not just in central Maine, but all over Maine and it’s one of those examples of what makes Maine great,” Baldacci said. “The Cole family and Cole Family Foundation have certainly made a tremendous positive influence across the state.”

The foundation’s association with Maine fire departments has been mutually rewarding for Cole who credited the emergency responders with generating the interest in their communities to make the TIC program a success. The foundation is able to help defray the expense of the cameras by buying the units in large numbers for participating communities that have pledged to raise a portion of the camera’s cost.

“It’s been a great program and we hope to continue getting into the small communities,” Cole said. “Of the 240 cameras we’re providing now, 80 percent of those are in small volunteer fire departments. I know the majority of those fire departments never thought they were going to see a thermal imaging camera because of the costs and the competing needs of the fire department.”

For firefighters like Dunbar, however, the real credit belongs to one Bangor family that chose to use its assets to help others.

“Maine’s firefighters have no greater friend than Gary Cole,” he said.