(MINEOLA, N.Y.) – Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D – Glen Cove) proudly joined her Rules Committee colleagues in a unanimous vote to award and execute a $162,970 purchase order for handheld sonar devices for the Office of the Nassau County Fire Marshal.
The state-of-the art equipment will equip members of the Fire Marshal’s Water Rescue Task Force and first responders from North and South Shore fire departments to more rapidly locate drowning victims during search and rescue operations. The devices, which cost approximately $13,000 per unit, has been fine-tuned to differentiate between a person and an inanimate object with 90 percent effectiveness, officials from the Fire Marshal’s office said.
The purchase order includes five tablets, through which larger searches using multiple sonar units can be overseen and coordinated under the supervision of an incident commander.
“Every second is critical during water search and rescue missions, and this cutting-edge technology has tremendous life-saving potential in the hands of our fire marshals and our first responders,” Minority Leader DeRiggi-Whitton said. “I am glad that this technology is coming to Nassau County, and I look forward to working with Michael Uttaro and his team at the Fire Marshal’s office and our partners in local government to ensure every municipality that needs it has full access to these devices.”