subject: Patterns Of Firefighter Lights [print this page] A fire outbreak is one of the more ghastly of accidents, and one that needs immediate attention. The public appears to be as aware of the problem as the fire department, because the dousing of fires is often achieved as much by the contribution of volunteer firefighters, as by that of the official firefighters. All those who participate in the job, be they from the fire department or volunteer firefighters, are allowed to use different types of firefighter lights on their vehicles for the facility to go faster.
Pretty much everything about fire, fire engines, and fire apparatus are defined by the color red, and firefighter lights are also predominantly red. However, the rules governing the light use vary from state to state, and from department to department. Red, white, and amber are the colors predominantly used in the fire department vehicles. In a light bar, red and white is often front facing, with amber light on the back.
Since fire engines are huge leviathans, firefighter lights also have to be big in size and more in number to make the vehicle visible. Lights displayed on a fire truck may include red and white light bars, red and amber rotators, and amber arrow sticks towards the back. Besides these, some fire trucks may use strobe lights on the dash and half a dozen grille lights as well.
Though fire trucks use red lights in much of North America, Canada, and Australia, in United Kingdom it is mostly blue, since pretty much most emergency lights are blue there. In USA, though some states use red and blue lights on the fire department's fire trucks, in most cases blue is used as volunteer firefighter lights. However, the colors of volunteer firefighter lights also vary in different parts of USA. In Michigan it is red, while in Indiana and New York it is blue.
Though the sporting of volunteer firefighter lights is a communication from the owner of the vehicle to the other vehicles that he is going in response to an emergency call, it does not give him the privilege to blindly overtake other vehicles or disregard traffic rules. The firefighter lights used by volunteer firefighters only come under the category of courtesy lights. The user will totally be at the mercy of other drivers for the right to go faster.
Some firefighters organizations even discourage the use of firefighter lights on volunteer firefighters vehicles, or even on fire department vehicles, on the premise that it helps in increasing accidents. In their opinion, moving along with the other vehicles, at the normally allowed speed, is the best way to reach the emergency venue safe, and provide services in the best possible way.
Mars light was a type of oscillating or gyrating light, which was popular at one time as firefighter lights. The lights moved in the form of the number 8 or as an ellipse. People found the whole idea attractive not just because the oscillating lights did a good job, but also because the idea of the red light named after the red planet Mars appealed to them. Los Angeles Fire Department had used Mars lights for many years.
