Emergency Lighting for Volunteer Firefighters and EMTs

Emergency lighting, according to my personal definition, is lighting that volunteer firefighters (also EMT's and other emergency personnel) wire to their personal vehicle to move traffic as they are on their way to an emergency call. These emergency lights include, but are not restricted to: interior dash lightbars, exterior roof lightbars, LED lighting, mini-bars, beacon lights, and much more. When a volunteer firefighter receives an emergency call it can be a life or death situation, which is why essentially every second counts. Emergency lights help clear traffic so that volunteer firefighters/EMTs can make it to their designated fire house as quickly as they can, making emergency lighting very important.

These emergency lights don't usually come too cheap either. In fact, a full exterior lightbar can cost over $2000.00, not including installation. Thankfully a full exterior lightbar isn't necessary for moving traffic when you're a volunteer firefighter.

Galls, a well-known company that sells fire fighting equipment, as well as emergency lighting, has a website where you can purchase emergency lights, fire fighting and EMT tools and supplies, uniforms, badges, flashlights, surveillance supplies, and much more. While searching through www.galls.com you will find that the cheapest emergency light is about $40.00, excluding installation. Prices go up as quality goes up (materials for lights, brightness of lights, kinds of lights, size of lights, placement of lights, ect).

Another cheap type of emergency lighting is known sometimes known as a "flasher system". These units are wired to your car, and contain a switch. Once you flip the switch the system will utilize your car's stock lights (fog lights, reverse lights, brake lights, ect.) to help clear traffic. However, using a mix of store-bought emergency lights (interior/exterior lightbar, ect) and these "flasher systems" will make you increasingly visible to other drivers, which, in essence, can save someone else's life.

Finding a website that sells emergency lighting for volunteers are easy to find. Some other websites that sell emergency lighting are www.fireauthority.com, www.thefirestore.com, and www.edarley.com.

There are an array of colors that may be used when it comes to emergency lighting. These colors include, and vary by law from state to state, blue, purple, clear, red, green, amber, and more. Please make sure that you do specific research, as some lights are illegal to use in volunteer's personal vehicles in certain states (Example: Red lights cannot be used in volunteer's cars in the state of New York, Purple is generally used for funeral cars, ect.)