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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 Kevin Olivarez on
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Every Vol FF. I have ever seen has had either lights, siren or both. I completely support FF's having them. I have rolled up on more than a few MVA's and stranded motorists with lights on and an arrow stick going on my truck. Its a safety thing. But its also a courtesy thing. Just because you have lights and a wailer dosent mean you own the road and can disobey traffic laws. Thats how people get hurt. Im a cautious driver when responding to a call. In texas you can run red and clear and even blue as long as its not the highest color on the tree. I think at departments should train their members on station responding. It will benefit teDept as well as the community.
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Permalink Reply by Scott Baublitz on
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Jeff Gaudio,
I think you missed out on my point do to your view of all vollies being wacker vollies. I agree with you about wakers not having lights. Like I said not every one should have them. Also, what I did not mention is every department needs to have SOPs about this. I noticed alot of departments don't allow them and that's fine. My department allows it,however we have standards for running emergency traffic in your POV. The standars include saftey inspections of your vehicle, Insurance coverage( for some guys this is the deal breaker do to cost) along with having 360 degree coverage from warning lights that are in good taste. You can not just have a dash light or a single rotational light and be good to go. You can not have a mobile runway. Also, along with EVOC training we also have a special class twice a year that is a 4 hour class about not blowing red lights and not speeding.
We do have the same opinion about the "Q"
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Permalink Reply by Brandon on
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our policy for our volunteer fire dept is only the chiefs are allowed lights and sirens, all other personal is allowed a dash light or grill lights but i think volunteers should be able too use red lights just as long as there not abused
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Permalink Reply by Rodney Ellerbrook on
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I think all firefighters need lights because were I live the other drivers don't even care even when u have ur flashers on.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Emergency lights are certainly important, but on emergency vehicles, not PV's. (My opinion...) However, I suppose it's important to not forget about radios, scanners, a spot light and maybe just one amber warning light to be an official 'Whacker'?
CBz
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Seriously? Don't mess with me John. If your not serious then let me know. There are plenty of other fish in the sea as they say.
This puppy is not just for sale but it has a sister that goes along with the deal. Kind of a two for one kind of thing... Please notice the painful detail that went into EXACTLY matching the fire engine red paint color. Pretty cool, eh?
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Permalink Reply by Troy Jason Trost on
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In our State if you want to have emergency lights you must have lights and a siren. The lights must be visable from 360 degrees,(red and white only,blue is only for law enforcement) and your chief has to sign off on the firefighter running lights and siren. They also must have had a driver operator class. This does not give you the right to disobey all of the traffic laws, you are only asking permission for the right of way by running them. At our Station the rights can also be taken away from a firefighter if they abuse this privledge.
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Permalink Reply by DeeDee on
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I don't personally have lights and sirens on my truck but sum of the guys on my dept do....and i think as long as they are not driving reckless, it's fine......our dept has one of the biggest district in the area and we dont have time 2 wait for sum of the guys, so they go pov and they shouldnt have to go the speed limit and watch for cops when we have a code pt. or structure fire, or even a brush fire 30mins away........i guess its up to the dept. on wat they wanna do we've never had any problems wit the guys getting tickets or reckless driving
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Permalink Reply by James Corgill on
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But were the lights and sirens responsible? That's the question. A firefighter can drive irresponsibly with or without lights and sirens.
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well said.
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Permalink Reply by Carlo on
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I believe the only people allowed to have any type of lights and siren's should be Officers only. LT's Capt's and Cheifs, and SGT's depending on departments rankings. anyone else shouldn't have lights. Just my two cents.
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Permalink Reply by Bekks on
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I'm good with "lights only" and not red.
Yah... there are, unfortunately, people who volunteer for the wrong reasons.
We have all seen them... if you haven't just search YouTube for POV response videos.
Those cows in the farm fields REALLY need to hear you blasting that siren for a 10-15 min video. And the world is SO much better now that you have showed off to the entire internet that you have a siren in your car/truck.
Unfortunately, a lot of good people get painted with that same brush.
I have not heard of too many sanctions being handed out for the bad apples. Our department reciently updated their SOP to give them the administrative "tools" to deal with people like that... after we got one... he's gone now but it is good that we have it on the books in case we need it in the future.
I'm in Ontario, Canada and we have green (sometimes green/clear) lights for volly FF (and reciently, specific EMS first responders).
NO siren, electronic airhorn... nothin.
It is a courtesy light. (see the TV ad on my profile page about it)
In the rural areas, it works well. The only people that don't pull over around MY "neck of the woods" are summer cottagers up from the city who 1) don't know what the green light is for, cause it is RARE in the city, and 2) they are overly consumed with their ipods, mobile DVD players, and trying to figure out why they can't get cell signal while they are "getting back to nature" LOL
Public education is key (but we know that already).
Traffic laws are made for a reason. You are no good to anyone if you crash on your way to a call.
One question Tim, you say YOUR RED light is "courtesy only".
I understand that in legislation, nobody is REQUIRED to pull over for you in your POV but... RED?
What driver (in North America anyway) hasn't been taught that you pull over for a vehicle with a red light? Seems kinda sneaky...
That does bring up another point though...
If we treated our RED (or whatever colour it's LAW to pull over for) as a courtesy light (in OUR mindset as the emergency responder)... we might have fewer collisions overall....
I know of several emergency responders running code (in Fire trucks, Ambulances, Police cars) that have been CHARGED for collisions because the law here says "...when safe to do so...." If the other guys doesn't stop for you when you are going through a red light... it's not safe to do so.
Whatever you do, whatever colour your light, do it safely.
The buck stops with YOU!
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