Firemen with blue lights on vehicles

[mpi]

cmu and pitt police marked vehicles use blue and red lights in combination, run sirens and wigwags and have standard passenger plates like any civilian vehicle. no muni plates or emergency vehicle plates.
mpi

[Punisher]

in most of my experience, volunteer fire personnel are usually young wannabes who way over do it. what are they in a rush for? the lights and sirens are for the real fire trucks - not the young kid who just wants an excuse to leave work to go running to an accident or fire so he can be nosy and stand around and gossip and drink coffee for two hours before going back to work - don't get me wrong i very much appreciate emergency personnel, but come on..........

[Skuggi]

I move over.

But funny thing is here in Stowe Twp. McKees Rocks, all we have is a volunteer FD. When there's a fire, you might as well call it an indy race and nobody obeys the traffic laws.

Now for the most part, they're damn good at speeding through traffic and I really cant complain.

[JustinM]

Originally Posted by dwhite725

what are they in a rush for?

I dunno, maybe the little things like car wrecks or a house that's burning? I don't think they need to be blowing red lights or anything, but the faster they respond, the better.

If volunteer firemen want to put lights on their vehicles and go a little faster to get to the firehall, then they can.

I'd rather see a volunteer firemen rushing to a scene, then see people tha thave never woken up at 3AM to voluntarily run into a burning building stand around and complain about how those people that save other peoples' lives have flashy things on their cars.....

[MarcS]

Originally Posted by dwhite725

in most of my experience

And what is your experience? Or did you mean to say "in my uninformed opinion"?

volunteer fire personnel are usually young wannabes

Young wannabes? All i see around my volunteer firehouse are trained firefighters and EMT's. There's nothing wannabe about it, they are real-life firefighters. Perhaps your shitty attitude spawns from you at one point wanting to be one as but not having what it takes? Don't beat yourself up, not everyone can do the job.

what are they in a rush for? the lights and sirens are for the real fire trucks

They're in a rush to get to the firehouse so they can get into the real firetrucks and put out real fires.

not the young kid who just wants an excuse to leave work to go running to an accident or fire so he can be nosy and stand around and gossip and drink coffee for two hours before going back to work

lets see, i've been a volunteer EMT since i was 17. All i can ever remember doing on the scene of an accident or fire was attending to my patients. It wouldn't hurt if someone was actually thoughtful enough to bring me a coffee on scene, but it doesn't seem to ever happen.

don't get me wrong i very much appreciate emergency personnel, but come on..........

No, you don't appreciate emergency personnel. If you call fire/ems anywhere outside of a major city in Pennsylvania, you are more than likely going to get volunteers. These volunteers have to do the same training as the paid guys and do it on their own time out of their own pocket. I just got back from Maine where i did 40 hours of continuing education that i don't even need for recertification out of my own pocket. My firehouse like many other volunteer departments doesn't even collect tax money from the community. We survive completely on ambulance billing and donations. If you want to "appreciate emergency personnel," put your money where your mouth is and write a check. Your all volunteer department in lititz could probably use the money.

[lvfcfirefighter]

I cant believe that in only 16 hours, there are 3 pages of replys to this thread. Its nice to know that all of you guys support what we do on a daily basis.

I would just like to add that our department is fortunate. We dont have any members that are wreckless nor have I seen any fireman driving wrecklessly. I do know of instances where someone has blown an incident out of proportion to make themselves look good or beacause of their disagreement with Volunteer Fireman.

[soberbyker]

I was a volunteer fireman (I retired) and fire police in my small town just outside of Philly, I had a blue light, really only used it in my fire police duties when directing traffic or blocking a street, local PD used to call us out during snow and ice to block hilly streets and bridges until the salt crews arrived. As a fireman I was a driver-pump operator so I got to use the red lights and siren, oh boy people really get out of the way, not, it seems they don't want to be on the wrong side of the incident so they speed up, not give way. Just today on I-95 in Philly I saw an ambulance, lights and siren on, getting passed by cars. Others have mentioned the legality of the various colored lights, just get out of the way when SAFE to do so.

On the university police note in Philadelphia;

The University of Penn police have red & blue and sirens on their cars, wagons and motorcycles AND they make traffic stops in the university area, giving out tickets, they have a regular Joe Blow tag on their cars. They also have the Law Enforcement Accreditation stickers as part of their markings.

Temple university police have red "Temple" tags on their fully marked cars.
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[axmdr40]

Pitt Police are real police as well. They are the 3rd largest police agency in Allegheny county. Whats the big deal about pulling over for blue lights? I give them the benefit of the doubt...chances are the are on the way to an emergency. The people of Pennsylvania are, in general, HORRIBLE at getting out of the way for emergency vehicles. Its ridiculous, are you're messing with other peoples lives by not safely getting out of the way for emergency vehicles.

[ithinkimamedic]

You would be supprised how many people Fail to yeild the right of way to an emergency vehicle which is operating its audible and visual warning devices. Fourtinatly if someone refuses to move they can be cited, if they play the game of staying infront of me for a prolonged period of time I'll take the make/model and tag, call up our PD or talk to the officer on the scene and they will get a little present in the mail. but that is also a lot of extra paperwork as I have to do an incident report as does my partner so it's generally not worth it to me.

Bottom line as most of us have agreed, just pull over. It's easier for all involved. If you have a problem with the way an emergency responder is operating contact the local PD & their supervisor/chief.

[VariableFeedback]

I think that one of the reasons that people don't quickly pull over for police cars in general is the decreased uses of roof rack lights in favor of the lights that mount inside the car at the bottom of the roof, or lights that are in the grill/on the side view mirrors. The cars without roof racks are much harder to see in traffic when they are still a couple of cars back. I don't know if this switch is so that the cars aren't as easily seen, so that the police can give more traffic ciations, or if there is another reason for the switch. I have seen both local police forces and the state police use the such light systems.