Zachary Lyon is a 10-year-old honor student from Columbia who decided that his local firefighters needed the latest in high-tech gear: a thermal imaging camera that helps rescuers see through smoke and costs thousands of dollars.

So he spent a year writing letters and knocking on doors, and put donation canisters in shops and restaurants. He produced two television commercials, held a charity miniature golf tournament at his elementary school and collected almost $9,000 toward the purchase of a camera.

The Howard County Fire Department is working to pick up the rest of the tab.

Zachary's story is not unique. It is just one of many nationwide that combines fund raising with camera manufacturers' sophisticated marketing techniques. Across the nation, youngsters are knocking on doors, washing cars and getting pledges -- aided by companies eager to make a sale.

The cameras, which can cost up to $25,000, are too expensive for most fire departments and have a limited use. So fire officials in Baltimore and other localities have spent their money on hoses, pumps and other standard equipment.

But community groups and youngsters like Zachary are providing a potent camera sales force -- one whose earnest public appeal is aided by manufacturers' videos, sample news releases and advice. One company, Cairns and Brother Inc. of Clifton, N.J., has sold 750 helmet-mounted cameras since early 1996 and estimates that 60 percent were purchased after charity drives.

Says Bill Tombs, who led a Michigan campaign that included appeals to local leaders: "There were very few meetings that we walked out of without a commitment. They'd look kind of rotten if they had kids dumping piggy bank money into a pancake breakfast and then wouldn't kick in some money themselves."

Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a Bethesda-based charity watchdog group, said, "My hat's off to [these companies] from a business point of view, but from a charitable giving standpoint it's a little disturbing.

"In a perfect world everyone would want to help their own fire department and just let them spend the money on whatever they want. We certainly don't want manufacturers who are driven by profits to decide what's best for a fire house or a charity."

Well-accepted procedure

But Richard Durand, chairman of the marketing department at University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, said, "I don't view this as being any different than a PTA having kids sell candy It's a mechanism that has been well accepted in our society."

Across America, the stories are similar:

Jenny Greenert, a 16-year-old student in Madeira, Ohio, made $4,000 working the concession booths at the Taste of Blue Ash festival. Professional wrestlers held a charity bout in Hazel Park, Mich. The Tri-County Bodyworkers Association of Rock Hill, S.C., donated the proceeds from massages.

All had the same motivation: "I knew it would save people's lives," Zachary said of his efforts. "I wanted to help them get it."

But typically the campaigns get some corporate help.

At least three manufacturers have created "fund-raising kits," with promotional videos, sample news releases and suggestions. Companies also distribute posters and ads and conduct mock rescues at community fairs to tout the products' life-saving potential -- many times where local governments have refused to finance the purchase.

Camera distributor

"John Q. Public has really jumped on this thing," said Bill Vanarsdale, a former fire chief in Harford County who now works for a distributor of the ISI Vision camera, manufactured in Lawrenceville, Ga. "The fire departments might need other things more desperately, but the public is saying, 'Hey, fire house -- or mayor or county commissioner -- why don't we have this, and what can we do to get it?' "

Not all fund-raising campaigns receive help from the manufacturers, and some campaigns don't buy a camera from the company that provided assistance. And Zachary received posters, literature and fund-raising advice from a manufacturer, but he and his parents planned most of his events.

Still, some manufacturers have full-time employees to oversee local fund-raising drives.

"We lend them as much support as we can," said Cathy Chakmakian, spokeswoman for Cairns-IRIS, the camera manufactured by Cairns. "But they've mostly contacted us. When people see what it can do, it hits home."

Greg Hall, product line manager for the MSA Argus, camera made by Mine Safety Appliances Co. in Pittsburgh, attributes the fund-raising phenomenon to "a Star Wars effect" -- the thirst for ground-breaking technology.

'Help the process'

"In 13 years in this business I've never seen anything hit the public like this," said Hall, whose company produced a fund-raising kit when it realized nearly all of its sales were being driven by public enthusiasm. "We're not really engaging in the fund-raising activity, but we try to help the process wherever we can."

The thermal-imaging cameras in commercial use are hybrids of military equipment used to sight missiles. Different from night-vision cameras, which amplify available light, the devices can read thermal -- or infrared -- energy when visibility is obscured by darkness or smoke.

The cameras create an image similar to black-and-white photography and are particularly good at spotting the pronounced heat signature of living things, making them useful for search-and-rescue missions in smoke-filled buildings. Firefighters can use the devices to see fires smoldering behind walls or to spot otherwise invisible gases.

No independent agencies rate the value of firefighting equipment, though thermal imaging cameras have received good reviews in trade journals and industry groups. The devices are often compared to other once-innovative rescue tools like the "thumper" CPR machine -- equipment that is expensive and of limited use, but of critical value when a need arises.

"It's recognized in the fire service that this equipment is going to become as essential in fighting fires as self-contained breathing air," said Pat C. West, managing editor of National Fire and Rescue Magazine.

Still, the devices have their disadvantages.

Fire officials impressed

Fire officials in Baltimore say they are impressed with the cameras but have no plans to buy one. Because the cameras usually must be on the scene of a fire quickly to be of help, the city would need dozens.

"It really just becomes a matter of luck for that camera to be in the right place when a fire is reported," said Battalion Chief Hector Torres, department spokesman. "We simply don't have the types of funds to make it worthwhile."

Fire officials seem to agree that the cameras could save lives, but that their greatest needs are for more low-tech equipment: hoses, pumps and safety apparatus.

"We're basically supported by the county government, and something like this -- a $25,000 purchase -- they would laugh at us if we sent something like that through," said Mike Granados, president of the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department. Two grade-school brothers raised money to donate a thermal imaging camera to the department last year.

Several fire companies around the country claim to have saved lives with such a camera, including the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, which dragged an unconscious man from a fire last year.

But much of the public enthusiasm for the devices stems from two NBC "Dateline" reports that featured images from a Cairns-IRIS camera and mentioned three Georgia deaths that might have been prevented with the device.

'Dateline' report

Zachary got his fund-raising drive idea from a "Dateline" report in August 1997. He made the effort part of his extracurricular requirements for the gifted and talented program at Stevens Forest Elementary School.

The campaign took so much free time he had to forego recreation-league baseball for a year. He raffled off donations from companies like Wal-Mart and Marriott. Apple Ford provided some marketing and public relations.

The whole thing was much tougher than his third-grade project, when he got the school to start recycling paper.

"If you're stuck on the floor, you want the firefighters to come in and see you or your baby. That's what it's all about," said Zachary's mother, Jill.

"There's not enough money in the budget for the Fire Department to buy something like this, so the only way this was going to happen was through this fund-raiser. And it looks like he did it. It was heartwarming, all the people who took this project on like it was their own."

Pub Date: 9/17/98