A thermal camera has been gifted to Jersey Lifeboat Association (JLA), that will make it easier for crews to conduct sea searches at night.

The new piece of equipment, worth £17,500, has been donated to the charity by Building Renovations Ltd and will live on its inbound lifeboat 'Albert Pinel'.

We're told this will dramatically improve crews' capacity for searches, allowing teams to more quickly spot people in need of rescue through tracking their thermal imagery. 

The JLA's previous camera will now be repurposed aboard the 'Sir Max' vessel.

Alain Baudain, a Senior Coxan with the charity, tells us this is a massive upgrade to the tools previous at the crews' disposal:

"We are utterly humbled, it's an amazing bit of a kit and a fantastic donation.

"It allows us to firmly scan an area quickly and in great detail, enabling us to find thermal images (essentially persons in the water or on shore) in a quick amount of time.

"We have had a thermal camera previously, but in terms of upgrades this is chalk and cheese.

"When seconds and minutes count, this new technology could essentially be the difference between life and death."