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Volunteers with Lights and Sirens
What do you think, should volunteer firefighters be allowed to have and use lights and sirens in their POV ? Should only the Chief an ASST. Chief be allowed to have them ?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jim Brunelle Jr. on
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I must say I have to go with reserving the lights and sirens for chief officers and apparatus.In NY that is how chief officers are identified,the volunteers are allowed blue lights and all must be operated with the understanding that they do not relieve anyone of thier driving responsibilities and all traffic laws are still in effect and must be followed at all times.
I do feel that the lights and sirens should be reserved for the chief officers,so that motorist understand the urgency of a situation and that right of way must be granted to them.And the volunteers should not have sirens.
I also feel that if every firefighter in the company was granted a siren it would lessen the respect given to officers who are trying to get to a scene to determine the level of the emergency and the need for certain resources.
Besides think how annoying 35 sirens responding to a alarm would actually be.
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Permalink Reply by Lester Pearsall on
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Light and sirens are required to run code to an incident. Our dept. only aloows them with the Chiefs permission and after taking drivers training and becoming a certified firefighter. Everyone needs to remember that light are a request for the right of way. And driving "with due regard for public safety"s the key factor. How many structures in a rural setting would be lost if Volunteer FF had to stay behind other traffic. How many lives would be lost if you couldn't get to the scene due to traffic. Bottom line is, all certified Volunteer FF should have lights and siren should be required. As for all the negative comments, are you "professional" firefighters that respond from a station thereby not needing lights and sirens on your pov. I live 5 miles from the station. Our district covers the southern third of the county that I live in. That is alot of territority to cover. Some of our runs are over 20 miles from the station. Without lights and sirens it would take that much longer to respond.
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Permalink Reply by Jason M. on
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I think that volunteers (I mean cert. volunteers )should be allowed to run lights.My department is vol. and with out lights are response time would double for fires and squad calls.At my dept. you have to wait one year in order to run hot,its a good thing cause it gives you time to learn the dept. policies and procedures.Safety is the number one thing when it comes to the public.
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Thats a very good policy
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Permalink Reply by Larry Humphreys on
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yes on both. Michigan is a double or nothing state as well. Depending on the nature of the call, time of day or night and location, (among other variables) a responder must use good judgement in this matter. The Chief and officers of most departments are usually pretty good about making sure protocall is followed. The trend for volunteer fire companies is becoming more and more professional. Abuse of privelages just makes us look like a good-ol' boys club, and the Michigan State Police has NO TROUBLE pulling your lights and reading your rights. I believe the proper use of lights & siren are well warranted, however, we are the propagators of safety, sometimes that means turning them off as well.
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Permalink Reply by FFMonighetti on
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I think they should at least allow lights, so that when you are responding the majority of people might move out of the way if they realize the urgency. I work in a very rural area in CA at the foothills of the Sierra Mountains, our district has 14 stations across the county 13-1/2 of which is volunteer only, and they are never staffed. The other half is 4/0 staffed, which is the main station. Our response times to the station are usually 2-10 minutes (keep in mind that is only to the station) then our response times from the station to the incident average 10-20 minutes (totaling a response time of 12-30 minutes). Therefore, there are alot of us volunteers that respond POV because it is closer than driving the opposite direction to the station. I cannot explain how many incidents have resulted in loss of lives because of the response times in this very rural highly populated county, due to the law in the state of CA that says we cannot use lights or siren in our POV. I agree all laws should be followed, but at least with lights it would guarantee our response times would be better, due to the people that would pull off the road, or yield to us so that we can safely pass.
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Permalink Reply by Beverly on
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As someone who has run blue lights (fire) on POV in NY, green lights (EMS) in my POV in MA and driven emergency vehicles (ambulance)...I'm not on our FD driver list yet...I can certainly relate to this question. First of all, unless the public is educated about what the lights on emergency vehicles mean and how they should act/react we can run enough lights to land a 747 on our roof and it won't make a difference. I have had (and I'm sure so have others) the experience of driving along, lights and sirens only to have someone pull out in front of us...if we are lucky they pull over, unlucky then they stop dead in the road. I just cannot understand how people cannot see or hear us. Everyone laughs about my use of the airhorn, but like it or not, that they seem to hear. That said, I think that as long as it is impressed upon each member about the responsible driving and V&T laws, then yes everyone should have a light. If you demonstrate that you cannot drive and respond responsibly then the chief has every right to revoke your blue (or whatever color) card and any police office has the right to treat you just like any other driver. Yes, in NY it is a "courtesy light" but if the public understood that we aren't just trying to get home for dinner or to the store before it closes, that the structure fire might be their house or the MVA might be their family or friend, then perhaps the public might actually pay attention to the lights flashing in their rearview. As to sirens, the chief and assistant chiefs should be allowed to run them as long as they demonstrate (just like everyone else) that they can be used responsibly.
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Permalink Reply by T.J. Howe on
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In PA, Only chief-grade officers, and the fire police captain / lieutenant can run red lights and a siren. A rescue captain and lieutenant can run red lights and a siren too. Everybody else runs blue lights. I have two vehicles. One has a halogen bar, a LED dash light, and headlight / tail light strobes. The other one that I drive is all 'whackered out'.
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Permalink Reply by Barry on
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I live about a mile from the fire house, most of the drive is down a side street, I guess about 3/4 mile and balance on a US highway. The hardest part is the left turn on to the highway. So I rarely use my blue light. One time I was on the highway coming from the next town over as soon as I crossed the town line I turned on the blue light and then got stuck behind Mr. 5 under the speed limit, I still made it for first engine out.
Anyhow back to my opinion, I think Chief's and Fire Police should get the sirens and emergency/police vehicle colored lights. Educate both firefighters and residence how they should respond/act/react with and to lights. Please enforce your policies and laws. There is this one guy in town who volunteers in the next town (another county even) he speeds and runs our traffic light with his blue light makes us all look really bad.
Peace,
Barry
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Permalink Reply by Mark on
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i think all volunteer ff should at least have lights, but like said in other comments i think some people would end up abusing their authoirty.
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Permalink Reply by John L. VanAuken on
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Well anouther good one. On our Dept. we are not allowed to have lights and sirens. For just the reasons allready mentioned, to much of a liability and temptation to break the rules of the road. We only run our fourways, allthough there are other Depts in the area that do allow lights. I dont know the laws on sirens, but think they are not allowed. I do have a couple of sets of strobes on my motorcycle, red in back and amber in front, to make up for not haveing fourways on motorcycles. I was told by our Chief that I could have a light, allthough they do not approve. The way they look at it if you get pulled over or couse an accident while responding what good are ya doin. For now there is one person short and if an accident now other personell have to go to help you or anyone else involved, so to lights and sirens I agree with my Dept. I dont run them, I obay the law and yes just as guilty as the next, have cought myself going a little to fast and have to slow down. So in closeing stay safe and take care
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Permalink Reply by Jacque on
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I think you should be able to have lights and sirens , because when you are responding the other trafic will know your going to a call. I've gone on calls and didn't have my lights yet and almost got hit casue they pulled out in front of me , its nice to have thoses lights also when you are working wrecks on the interstate and need them for trafic control
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