The issue of selection and evaluation of fire thermal imaging cameras (TICs) is new for the personnel of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES of Ukraine) units, as in the recent years the units began to receive them and use during firefighting and rescue operations. Among the variety of brands and manufacturers of TICs, it is quite difficult to determine and make the right decision "which one to choose?", especially considering that they are all quite similar in their characteristics and are in the same price range. Moreover, sellers are not mentioned about their weaknesses, and especially do not emphasize what exactly you need to focus on and under what conditions properly they should be used.
 The purpose of the work is to assess the dependence of the effectiveness of fire detection and rescue operations considering the technical parameters and brands of fire thermal imagers. According to the method of estimating the parameters of TICs, which was developed at the Lviv State University of Life Safety, a comparative evaluation of the performance of TICs, which are used by units of SES of Ukraine. TICs of the following brands were selected for research: FLIR K2, 3M SCOTT V206, FLIR K33, 3M SCOTT V320, LEADER TIC3, 3M SCOTT X380 TIC3. According to their tactical and technical characteristics, the presented TICs were divided into three groups, two in each. To obtain a quantitative assessment of the visual quality of the display of the indicators understudy, a four-point rating scale was adopted: 5 - excellent reflection; 4 - good reflection; 3 - mediocre reflection; 2 - unsatisfactory reflection. According to the results of the research and the set amount of points, which took into account all series of experiments, the best result in their groups showed: Group I - 3M SCOTT V206, Group II - FLIR K33, Group III - 3M SCOTT X380. Based on experimental studies, it can be argued that the current parameters (tactical and technical characteristics) that influence the choice of TICs are: the size of the matrix, the refresh rate, temperature range and temperature sensitivity. These parameters are decisive during the reconnaissance of the SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) units in gassed and smoky environments to solve complex tactical tasks, such as searching for a victim or hidden combustion centre and other tasks for their intended purpose.