MACHIAS – Firefighters have had their first chance to use the department’s new thermal-imaging camera, and the results were impressive, according to Capt. Dan Pugsley.

On Aug. 31, the department responded to a call from a Lyons Street homeowner whose basement was filling with smoke.

The camera’s infrared sensors pinpointed a malfunctioning hot-water heater in about half the time it would have taken firefighters to find the source of the smoke, Pugsley said.

“This is going to be a very valuable piece of equipment,” Pugsley said. “I can’t believe we’ve gone this long without it.”

Four firefighters from the Machias Fire Department picked up the camera after two days of training Aug. 11 and 12, and the department will offer training to firefighters from the department’s four mutual-aid communities and surrounding towns, Pugsley said.

Only a handful of Washington County fire departments – including Calais and Eastport – have the device, which allows firefighters to “see” even in a smoke-filled room.

The camera detects differences in heat, depicting warmer objects – including people – as white. The whitest object on the screen is the hottest, Pugsley said.

Thermal-imaging cameras can spot victims in a smoke-filled room 75 percent faster than the traditional search method, in which firefighters, driven to the floor by heat and smoke, search for occupants on their hands and knees.

The equipment also can detect hot spots and fires hidden in walls and ceilings, allowing firefighters to minimize the amount of structural damage sometimes necessary to ensure that a fire has been extinguished.

First used by the military to see enemy soldiers on the battlefield [particularly at night], the technology was adapted to firefighting in 1985.

Use of the cameras has grown tremendously, and as of the beginning of this year approximately 100 of Maine’s 400 fire departments have bought the camera.

Machias is one of the Maine fire departments that received a grant from the Galen Cole Family Foundation of Bangor to buy a camera.

The Machias camera cost $26,000 and has all the “bells and whistles,” Pugsley said.

The equipment includes a transmitter that allows the images on the camera to be sent to the firetruck where they can be viewed on a screen, he said.

The Cole foundation grant was $15,000, and Sandra Bryand, a Machias businesswoman, and the American Legion in Machias each contributed $1,000, Pugsley said.

Bryand, who owns two buildings that firefighters saved during a September 2000 blaze that destroyed the former site of Helen’s Restaurant, also donated $500 in proceeds from a yard sale she organized on behalf of the department, Pugsley said.

The rest of the money came from Machias Fire Department fund-raisers including raffles, car washes and the fried dough booth the department offers during events such as the Machias Blueberry Festival.