Some interesting information from South Milwaukee Fire Chief Joe Knitter …
I’m glad to see we are keeping up with the latest technology in our quest to save lives (and potentially capture terrorists).
Since the capture of the second Boston bombing suspect a few weeks ago, there has been a lot of media attention around the Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) Unit that was used by the helicopter to spot the suspect in the boat. More recently, the Milwaukee Police Department was spotlighted on the evening news demonstrating their FLIR Unit on the MPD Rescue Boat.
I thought I would let everyone know that SMFD, too, has a FLIR Unit on our rescue boat. In fact, the unit was used last year to assist in locating the adult and two juveniles who were missing after dark from Bender Park on their personal watercraft. At that incident, our boat was deployed after dark and located the group attempting to push their watercraft back to Bender Park after having run out of fuel. The three boaters were taken aboard our rescue boat and their watercraft was towed back to Bender Park. Had they not been located, the outcome would have predictably been quite worse considering the water temperature and where they were located. In addition, only one of the three was wearing a flotation vest. …
This equipment, which was fully funded by an Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Port Security Grant, has great potential, especially considering the weather conditions (fog, etc.) and darkness we may be called in to respond.
Our boat is currently being prepped for placement in it’s mooring spot at the SM Yacht Club.
Check out pictures here, here and here, including a screenshot that shows a human figure standing amidst the department’s training tower and vehicles.
South Milwaukee Blog 