A Waldoboro family is raising funds for a new thermal imaging camera for the town’s fire department.
Homeowner Nomi Rotondo said the family came up with the idea after the Waldoboro Fire Dept. used their camera at the family’s West Main Street home to detect hot spots following a power surge in early May.
The Waldoboro department’s thermal imaging camera is now 12 years old, Nomi Rotondo said. Being that the fire department serves eight towns including Waldoboro, the Rotondos felt a new camera was a worthwhile investment.
“The assistant chief told me they have been pursuing grants [for a new camera] and being denied, so I thought what better thank you to our brave volunteers than purchasing a newer camera,” Vincenzo “Vinny” Rotondo said.
Private donations covered the $25,000 price tag for the camera the department has now, according to a letter of support that Waldoboro Fire Chief Paul Smeltzer and Town Manager William Post sent to the Rotondos on June 4.
“We will not be able to purchase another camera for many years through our regular budget process,” Smeltzer and Post wrote in the letter.
The department hasn’t looked into buying a camera themselves because “in these economic times, our needs are so great,” Smeltzer said in an interview on June 15. “I’ve informed the entire department of their fundraising efforts, and [the Rotondos’s] willingness to do this means a great deal to all of us.”
The newer cameras are significantly smaller and lighter, and they provide much more detailed images, Smeltzer said. Having a second camera would allow them to dispatch cameras with both of the department’s rescue vehicles, which is especially important when responding to apartment buildings and other multi-residence buildings, Smeltzer said.
New models of the camera cost about $13,000, Vinny Rotondo said. He hopes that they will able to raise enough money to buy two cameras.
“One of the things people don’t understand is they do far more than finding hot spots in the wall,” Nomi Rotondo said. “They also help find people. They do all sorts of things.”
“The newer ones can tell you where a person is in a smoke-filled room,” Vinny Rotondo said. “If a firefighter is down, it can tell you the difference between a firefighter and the fire itself. It can follow the footprints and handprints and that’s how they tell where a person is.”
The power surge that kicked off the Rotondos’s interest in thermal imaging cameras started when a tree fell on a power line near their home around 5:30 p.m., May 6, Nomi said.
“I actually felt the power surge go through the wall,” Nomi said. “It felt like an earthquake, a minor tremor type thing. Then the light bulb next to me popped out.”
The Rotondos’s newer television, which was hooked to a surge protector, survived the surge although the protector did not. An older model TV was ruined, several other appliances were fried and light bulbs blew out all over the house.
The surge shut down the family computer, but the contents of the hard drive were spared thanks to an internal surge protector.
“I think the worst thing was you could just feel it go through the house,” Nomi said.
“I smelled smoke and my wife got out of the house with the dog,” Vinny said. “With their older camera they checked my walls to find there was no fire within the walls. They didn’t have to rip apart the walls in order to find anything, which was a relief.”
This is the first time Vinny Rotondo has taken on a fundraising project of this magnitude. Currently Rotondo is approaching area businesses soliciting goods and services that will be raffled off to raise money for the camera.
Rotondo has already received almost $1500 in contributed items from 10 local business, including a leather recliner from Dow Furniture in Waldoboro.
A neighbor’s grandson, Robbie Barter, volunteered to mow the Rotondos’s lawn when he heard what they were doing. “It’s something little, but it’s fantastic,” Nomi Rotondo said.
They will have a table at Waldoboro Days, Warren Days, and Friendship Days to raise the profile for his quest. They hope to attend such festivals in all of the eight towns Waldoboro Fire serves. The others include Bremen, Washington, Union, Nobleboro and Jefferson.
“I spoke to one of the fire equipment suppliers in Maine and they have given me a loaner camera so I can have that at Waldoboro Days,” Rotondo said. “I am also waiting for paperwork from the fire equipment distributor.”
To help with the effort, Pastor Tom Rawley of the Waldoboro Word of Life Church has agreed to support Rotondo’s fundraising effort under the church’s nonprofit umbrella.
“When he told me about it and asked me what he had to do, I said ‘why you don’t just do it through the church?'” Rawley said.
Rotondo said checks may be made payable to CWFD (Citizens for the Waldoboro Fire Department), 102 West Main St., Waldoboro.
Donations can also be made to a designated bank account in the name of CWFD at the Waldoboro branch of Rockland Savings and Loan, 1341 Atlantic Highway, P.O. Box 1229, Waldoboro, 04572.
For more information please call 449-8380.