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With an eye toward reducing the estimated 20,000 yearly agricultural fires in the United States, Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau Federation are offering members access to thermal imaging cameras, a new, free tool that can pinpoint potential fire hazards on
the farm.

County Farm Bureaus began lending the cameras to members late last year through the new program, which is sponsored by Nationwide.

The cameras translate heat energy into images — essentially producing a digital heat map of whatever’s being photographed, said Ryan Michalek, director of property engineering within risk management for Nationwide. Red sections of an image mean there’s heat, which could signal a problem.

Nationwide conducts digital imaging for its farm insurance policyholders and wanted to expand the technology’s agricultural use, so the company donated 24 thermal imaging cameras to Farm Bureau, Michalek said. The cameras are about the size of a cell phone and cost about $800 each.

Each organization director will have one camera to lend out in a four-county area, said Tim Hicks, Ohio Farm Bureau Nationwide services field director.

“It’s a tool that will give farmers greater insight into what’s happening on their farms,” said Hicks. “It’s a way to address and uncover problems before they occur.” Farmers could take images of the mechanical parts of a combine, for example, to see if belts are rubbing or bearings are deteriorating, Michalek said. And while Michalek can’t say for certain that Nationwide agents have prevented a farm fire with the cameras, they’ve certainly uncovered problems that could have started a blaze, he said.

FLIR, a Teledyne company, manufactures and distributes the cameras, which have been used since the early 1980s. Chris Tagarelis, inside sales manager for FLIR, said their use in the agriculture space is recent, and the company is starting to expand it.

“Ohio is on the cutting edge of this,” Tagarelis said.

Hicks said the cameras are one more way Ohio Farm Bureau is fulfilling its promise to give Ohio members a competitive advantage.

“It gives members exposure to an innovative technology that can help them be better at their chosen vocation,” he said. “The pace of innovation in every facet of society is happening so fast, particularly in agriculture, that it’s challenging to know what type of technology is worth investing in. That’s something that the Ohio Farm Bureau is leading on.”

Tagarelis noted that, in addition to machinery, the cameras can be used to detect the potential for fire where grain is stored, in a home breaker box and even in a home electrical outlet.

Kim Harless, organization director for Jackson-Vinton, Pike and Scioto counties, said winter is the perfect time for farmers to try out a thermal imaging camera because harvest season is over.

She plans to have Farm Bureau county board members use it first. Then she’ll send out a notification to her wider membership, alerting them to the camera’s availability. She plans to promote the tool on her counties’ website and Facebook pages.

Harless has been trained in how to use the camera, which she said is easy to figure out and very self-explanatory.

“It’s a new concept and it’s free, which is something you don’t often find, so I’m hoping word will get around that it’s a good tool to use,” she said. Members can each borrow the camera for a few weeks, she said, then pass it on to another member.

Harless also hopes that members who aren’t farmers will take advantage of the thermal imaging cameras as well.

“They can check pretty much anything that has a power source going to it, like the breaker boxes in their homes,” she said.

If the lending program is successful in Ohio, it may expand to other states, Tagarelis said. Nationwide already is working on a program in New York and is in talks with Farm Bureaus in other states, Michalek said.

What do to next

Contact your county Farm Bureau about the thermal imaging lending program in your area.