Two MSA Thermal Imaging Cameras for the Greenville Fire Department will be added to the inventory to help firefighter operations.

The fire department purchased one of these cameras about 12 to 14 years ago for $18,000, Greenville Fire Department Chief Mike Phillips said. Because of the increase in technology, Phillips was able to secure two cameras for a total of $10,000 after the approval from the Greenville City Council in its monthly meeting Monday night.

“They are cameras that we actually use inside of a building,” Phillips said. “If [a building] is on fire, it enables us to see through the smoke. If there were a person in that room, even though we couldn’t see our hand in front of our face, it would pick up the body image of that person. It gives us the opportunity to locate them quickly and get them out of the house.”

Not only does the camera enable firefighters to locate people in building fires, but it also allows them to find hot spots to make sure the fire is completely out as well as possible victims that have been ejected from vehicles on the side of the road.

“It gets a lot of usage,” Phillips said. “If we were out on the interstate at an automobile accident and victims have been ejected in the middle of the night, you might find not any victims and they might not be conscious. We use that camera to scan up and down the roadways to detect if there was another person that could have been in that vehicle.”

For Phillips, every second counts when it comes to saving someone’s life and these cameras help tremendously in decreasing those seconds.

“If we do have someone trapped in house, every second counts before we get there,” Phillips said. “If we have one truck on the other side of time it’s going to take them a minute or two to get on the scene and that minute can mean a life or death for that individual. We put these things into action as soon as we get there.”

In Other Business: 

• Approval of an off-premise only retail beer alcoholic beverage license for Diamond Quality Food Stores, LLC.
• Approval of MPH Industries of a two in-car traffic radar units for $4,386.
• Approval of Montgomery Radiator for a Radiator Core for street department dozer for $1,250.
• Approval of CWA Group for groundwater monitoring for four wells for old landfill for $2,985.
• Approval of Affinity Media for the 2012 Trailer Life and Good Sam advertising for Sherling Lake Park and Campground for $2,435.
• A reminder that the city will be on holiday Monday, Dec. 26, Jan. 2 and garbage services for those Monday routes will run the following day.
• The next meeting will be Monday, Dec. 19 at 5:30 p.m.