From: Cary.Eastwood@f17.n275.z1.fidonet.org (Cary Eastwood)
Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services
Subject: Voulunteer fd and lig
Date: 11 Nov 92 12:10:00 GMT

RG>SS>Lights lights and more lights.... It seems that too many
volunteer
RG>SS>firefighters are more concerned with being visible to the
community
RG>SS>than with helping the community.  Now to those of you who are
about to
RG>SS>jump down my throat, please wait one sec.:
RG>   A Whole bunch deleted here...
RG>SS>        What are others thoughts/experiences on the issue?  I am
in
RG>SS>the process of looking for the newsletter with the study in it,
so
RG>SS>that I can appease the hoards that are going to be asking for it.
RG>SS>Other than than, please inform me of other state's policies
regarding
RG>SS>blue lights, etc.

RG>    Steve, I'm putting on my nomex underwear because I'm with you. 
Here
RG>    in New York State blue lights are a request for other drivers to
RG>    yield...NOT a demand.  Unfortunately many of the otherwise
decent,
RG>    responsible and levelheaded firefighters I've seen become
totally
RG>    out of control when the bells hit and they fire up the blue
light.
RG>    It seems to be mostly the younger guys (I'm an old man of 30) but
I
RG>    recently saw a Fire Policeman do a right on red in front of a guy
in
RG>    my company who had the green.  The Fire Cop is about 65 years
old
RG>    and never even slowed down, fortunately our guy was travelling
at
RG>    a reasonable and prudent speed and the accident was avoided.  I
cant
RG>    help but feeling that if the situation was reversed our man
would
RG>    have had a LOT of explaining to do to our chief.
RG>      As far as my experiences with the efficacy of blue lights, I
live
RG>   in a small city with a mixture of street widths. My current light
is
RG>   an interior job with a bunch of mirrors behind it. Some people
are
RG>   GREAT, they pull over as if you were on your way to THEIR house,
RG>   others are totally oblivious and some are downright spiteful. 
I'm
RG>   not about to give up on my blue light but caution is the most
RG>   important thing when responding to a fire scene.  I'm not sure
where
RG>   I read it but I believe the most common cause of (line of duty)
death
RG>   for vol. firefighters is MVA's

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Out hear in California, they are a little strange.  No lights on
volunteer cars.  No blue lights on any emergency cars/trucks execpt for
police cars.  Blue is a great color, it getts everybodys attention
better that red or amber.
About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I was working the graveyard shift at 7-11 in a
town here in Calif. of about 23,000 people.  The chief, ast. chieff,
and
2 paramedics per station (2 stations total) are full time.  The rest is
vounteer.  There was a fire up the street from the 7-11 and we sit at a
corner that has a stop light.  You should have seen all the near misses
(turning right on the red in front of another car, both speeding)
people
turning right at the light then going down the street a couple of feet
and fliping a U and come back up and trun right again.  I had a person
fly through the lot to avoid the light.  If I or someone was in the lot
or turning into it he would have smashed into the car or the person.

Slow it down!!!!  You are not an emergency vechle.
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