Police uses red and blue, typically in a half and half configuration with some white to the front mixed in and sometimes some amber to the rear.
Fire and EMS uses mostly red. Typically with some white to the front and some amber to the rear mixed in. EMS has some additional regulations in addition to the motor vehicle code from the DOH. Ambulances are limited to one forward facing white light, but can use 2 if they are in a lightbar. They are supposedly limited to 2 rear facing amber lights, but I commonly see units with 3. Some utilize amber to the front, but not more than 2.
Fire and EMS department members can utilize blue lights (with no siren) on their POVs, but doing so does not enable them to disregard any laws like actual emergency vehicles can. Up to 3 Chief Officers of Volunteer Fire and/or EMS departments can utilize red lights and sirens on their POV and are recognized as an emergency vehicle when doing so.
Amber only is tow trucks, DPW and other service type vehicles.
06-30-2013, 09:24 AM (This post was last modified: 10-07-2014, 12:51 PM by GA_Dave.)
The law in Georgia stipulates that blue lights are only authorized on law enforcement vehicles, but there are several fire departments in the State that are using blue lights on the rear of their apparatus. These are usually the "upper rear blocking lights" and are only lit when the parking brake is applied. Most of these FD's spend a considerable time on Interstate highways in heavy traffic areas. I know of no complaints by law enforcement about them.
In relation the blue lights on rear of rigs, I believe the DOT and NFPA require them. When my dept. ordered the last 2 engines, we didn't have a choice and was told we had to hve them.
Quote:DOT has no bearing on it. NFPA standard calls for amber while parked. Blue is just a recognized color by NFPA but not required
Late to the posting party, just thought that I would clarify that NFPA allows for amber to the rear when blocking right-of-way, but does not require it.
Taylor Goodman Captain - Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire Fire Chief - Huguenot VFD, Powhatan, VA
02-02-2014, 02:20 AM (This post was last modified: 02-02-2014, 02:21 AM by npfd801.)
Quote:
Late to the posting party, just thought that I would clarify that NFPA allows for amber to the rear when blocking right-of-way, but does not require it.
I'm late to the party too. I'm fairly sure amber has been used historically to meet the lumens requirement from NFPA, i.e. yellow is brighter for a given lamp than red, which is brighter than blue. If you look at demo rigs, they'll have typically the cheapest lighting package permissible from a particular lighting company to NFPA's minimum standard. When you added blue, you typically had to add it in addition to other lights to meet the lumens standard. This is less that case now with the prevalence of LED lighting as opposed to halogen and strobe. I ran into this a lot when selling fire apparatus.
Just spent the day in Wisconsin and it always find it odd that all of their fire apparatus are red lighting when in Illinois we use just about everything (red, blue, green, white). Plenty of folks do green on a front flasher to emulate Chicago. Not judging but it takes me a moment to realize why.
We use predominately Red in Indiana, a lot of departments use Red and White to the front, and Red and Amber to the rear,it really just varies from department to department. Indiana seems to not really care what a department uses in the way of lights. The problem that I've noticed going from department to department, is a lot of people don't know what's out there, and don't try anything new, therefore you see a lot of JUST RED.
Starting to see some blue lights appearing in Ontario Fire Departments. Ottawa Fire, the chief and some of the deputies have red and blue lights, while Mississippi Mills, a rural department just outside Ottawa, both their tankers run red/blue lightbars.
Quote:How does the fire service in the USA authorization to use blue lights in the light bars.
In Canada the only ones that can use blue in the light bars are RCMP, DNR, DFO, Sheriff's Dept. and city/town police.
I moved out to Henderson in June to live on the property that I work at as a Maintenance Tech. On Weds Henderson Fire was on property for a medical call at the building next to mine. Here is Engine 94
09-21-2014, 03:46 AM (This post was last modified: 09-21-2014, 03:47 AM by Dickey.)
Quote:
Just spent the day in Wisconsin and it always find it odd that all of their fire apparatus are red lighting when in Illinois we use just about everything (red, blue, green, white). Plenty of folks do green on a front flasher to emulate Chicago. Not judging but it takes me a moment to realize why.
Wisconsin statutes govern what colors can be used by certain agencies. Red and Blue is strictly for law enforcement in WI. Red and Amber only can be used by tow trucks, shops/maintenance can only use Amber, and fire/EMs can use red, white, and amber.
Since blue is law enforcement only, it freaks me out sometimes to see blue on a fire truck or ambulance...
Jason Knecht
Fire Inspector
Township Fire Dept., Inc.
Eau Claire, WI
When the Engineer of Engine 1 saw that I wanted to take pictures of Truck 1 he offered to pull it out for me. I jumped at the chance and not wanting to cause any major disruption I would have been happy to get pictures of it on the front apron but he drove it around to the rear of the station for better pictures.