Governor Christie Todd Whitman with two New Jersey firefighters.

Bullard Fulfills New Jersey Contract: 900 Thermal Imagers Shipped on Time

"New Jersey becomes the first state in the nation with border to border thermal imager coverage."

January 30, 2001

Over the course of nine months, Bullard has fulfilled its contract with the state of New Jersey by shipping about 900 thermal imagers for use in fire departments across the state. The first 587 thermal imagers equipped every department in the state, making New Jersey the first in the nation to provide border-to-border coverage. Remaining units funded by the state appropriation were shipped to departments that were eligible for multiple units, based on population and geographic requirements established by the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety.

The state’s push to equip its local fire departments began on April 20, 2000 with a kickoff event held at Middlesex Fire Academy. Since then, Bullard has shipped 100 units per month to officials at the Division of Fire and Safety, who then distributed units to local fire departments. Bullard shipped 100 percent of thermal imagers to New Jersey on time according to the original schedule.

Bill Kramer, Deputy Director of the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety, said that the program has received a great deal of praise from firefighters and other parties who were involved in the project. "The credit needs to go to the legislature for passing the legislation, to Governor Whitman for allocating funding, and to my staff for their professional management of all the logistics. It’s been a super success in everybody’s eyes," Kramer said.

Kramer emphasized that the major benefit of equipping all New Jersey departments with the same brand of thermal imager deals with the increase of mutual aid in the state. "Because of reduced resources, fire departments throughout New Jersey rely heavily on mutual aid. When every department has like equipment, everyone knows how to operate the equipment when they arrive on scene," he said. "And this improves the efficiency and effectiveness of mutual aid efforts."

Governor Christine Todd Whitman and the state legislature of New Jersey took a national lead with fire safety by appropriating $7.5 million for the purchase of thermal imagers in October of 1999. The state of New Jersey selected Bullard from among numerous thermal imager vendors under consideration in a bid process that ended in March of 2000. Following are milestones of this historic effort:

• Oct, 1999 Governor Christine Todd Whitman signs legislation to equip every NJ fire dept
  
   
• March, 2000 Bullard Thermal Imager selected through evaluation and bid process
  
   
• April, 2000 First 50 Bullard Thermal Imagers distributed under contract
  
   
• Sept, 2000 Every New Jersey municipality is equipped
  
   
• Dec, 2000 Bullard fulfills original New Jersey contract by shipping 900 state-purchased thermal imagers

The Bullard Thermal Imager is manufactured and sold by Bullard, a privately held manufacturer of personal protective equipment, based in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Product lines include thermal imaging devices, hard hats, firefighter and rescue helmets, police helmets, supplied air respirators and air quality equipment. For more information, contact the Bullard Inside Sales group at 1-800-227-0423 or visit Bullard’s web site at www.bullard.com.