Operating in the dark is unsafe and ineffective. What's more, it's unnecessary. Fire departments now can choose from a wide variety of area-lighting products designed for use on all sizes and types of vehicles — from the smallest command car or mini-pumper to the largest aerial or heavy rescue.

On the fireground, these lights can help firefighters avoid downed powerlines, find secure footing to ventilate a roof and quickly move around a structure to pull a hoseline, or can help rescuers speed extrication efforts, communicate visually in a high-noise environment, and locate victims that may have wandered off or have been ejected from a vehicle.

Growing usage

Area lights first appeared on rescue trucks and proved their worth by providing illumination at major incident scenes that often were spread over large areas [Ed.: See “Options to the rescue,” February 2000, available at <www.firechief.com>.] From there, area lights found uses on aerials and pumpers, where they helped firefighters quickly size up the situation and move about the fireground more effectively and safely. Some of the newest emergency vehicle applications for area lights include command vehicles, wildland pumpers and even fire department shop trucks.

Along the way, area lights have changed their shape, size and mounting methods to meet different requirements. Some lights were mounted on manually raised poles to get them up in the air where they could illuminate a larger area. Others were grouped in multiple-light installations and mounted on power-elevated light towers to illuminate even larger areas. On vehicles where raised lights weren't practical, manufacturers designed lights that could be surface-mounted or recessed into the side of the apparatus to illuminate the immediate area around the vehicle.

The current trend is toward area lights that are brighter, more compact and lower profile to get more light from a smaller package. There's even the beginnings of a trend to return to very bright vehicle-powered 12/24-volt lights that don't require a separate 110/220-volt generator — saving cost, weight and compartment space on many smaller apparatus.

This trend of getting more from less also has resulted in a line of portable lights with their own gasoline engine-driven generators to allow operation in areas where vehicle-mounted lights can't provide sufficient illumination and where portable lights attached to cord reels can't reach.

Requirements for vehicle-based area lights operating on 110/220-volt alternating current (line power) are covered in Sections 21-12 and 21-13 of nfpa 1901, Automotive Fire Apparatus (1999). These requirements apply to lights powered by an on-board generator or inverter, as well as to lights powered by an external source through a shoreline connection on the vehicle.

Requirements for vehicle-based area lights operating on 12/24-volt direct current (vehicle power) are covered in Section 11-10, of nfpa 1901. They are also covered in Section 4.10 of the nfpa 1906, Wildland Fire Apparatus (2001).

Consider the possibilities

If your last apparatus was specified with a single area light mounted atop the vehicle, you may be missing some other efficient ways to use these versatile lights. Here are a few:

• Get 'em up! Area lights can illuminate a larger area when they're positioned high above the vehicle. Raised poles and elevated light towers can put lights anywhere from 12 to 24 feet above the ground. Putting the lights up high also reduces the possibility of blinding personnel when they turn to face the vehicle.
• Spread 'em around. In many incidents, the scene of operations extends to the front, rear and sides of the vehicle. Having several lights positioned around the vehicle ensures that you'll always have light where you need it.
• Take 'em with you. Some pole-mounted lights can be detached from the vehicle and set up on their own tripod base. Power is supplied through a cable on a reel in one of the compartments. Portable lights attached to small generators add even more portability to illuminate remote areas, such as over-the-side vehicle accidents, and the generators are quiet enough to allow normal conversation.
• Give 'em to everyone. Think outside the box and mount area lights on all of your vehicles. Put a light on each side of your wildland pumper to aid in nighttime pump-and-roll operations or to assist the crew in making long hoselays. Give your arson inspector a small portable light with its own generator and you won't have to tie up another apparatus all night. Yes, even put one on your shop truck.
• Put 'em on your older rigs. Most modern area lights are completely retrofitable, so you can put them on your older apparatus as well as specify them on your new ones.

A high-tech future

The next generation of area lights is expected to be based on high-intensity discharge technology — something like a continuously burning strobe light. A few manufacturers already are offering hid lights with intensities that are as much as four times brighter than some halogen bulbs. Other manufacturers are expected to follow.

Beyond that, area lights using white light-emitting diodes may be only a few years away. leds offer tremendous advantages, including very long life, excellent vibration resistance and very low current draw. Right now leds are much more expensive than other light sources, but if white led light bulbs can be made available for the household lighting market, then prices should fall dramatically for other applications as well.

Area light manufacturers

Betts Industries
814-723-1250, <www.bettsindustries.com>
Churchville Safe-t-lite
800-462-6143, <www.safe-t-lite.com>
Circle D Lights
201-933-5500, <www.circle-d.com>
Code 3
314-426-2700, <www.code3pse.com>
Command Light
800-797-7974, <www.commandlight.com>
Federal Signal
800-832-5908, ext. 5405, <www.fedsig.com>
Fire Research
800-645-0074, <www.fireresearch.com>
GFE Mfg.
309-444-4440, <www.gfemfg.com>
Havis-Shields (Kwik Raze and Collins Dynamics)
800-524-9900, <www.havis.com>
Tele-Lite
800-538-0022, <www.tele-lite.com>
Unity Mfg.
312-943-5200
Whelen
800-526-9504,<www.whelen.com>
Will-Burt
330-684-5248, <www.willburt.com>

How bright is bright?

In nfpa standards, the required levels of illumination are defined in terms of footcandles. When lights are listed in catalogs, however, manufacturers often use terms such as lumens, candela, candlepower or just plain watts. How do these measurements relate to each other, and what do they really mean to the user?

To understand this complicated subject you need to understand some basic definitions. In the United States, the standard unit of illumination on a surface is the footcandle. One footcandle of illumination is defined as the amount of light falling on a one-square-foot area located one foot away from a one-candela light source. Photometers (light meters) usually are calibrated in footcandles. The amount of light in this definition is known as one lumen. The concept of illumination is important because the human eye needs a certain amount of light per square foot of surface to correctly perceive objects. This is true whether you're trying to read a menu in a candlelit restaurant or trying to find your way around obstacles on a darkened fireground.

When manufacturers describe lights, they often use lumens as a measurement of the total amount of light produced by the light bulb. This light radiates outward in all directions from the bulb. Lumens are a measure of the light output of the bulb, but they do not include the effect of the reflector or the overall light design, so they don't tell you how much illumination the light produces on an object. That has to be measured or calculated.

The term candela refers to the brightness or intensity of a light bulb. A one-candela light bulb produces a total of about 12.6 lumens of light, which radiates in all directions. Candela are a measure of the light intensity of the bulb, but they don't include the effect of the reflector or the overall light design. Again, they don't tell you how much illumination the light produces on an object.

The term candlepower is one of the most misunderstood and misused terms regarding lights. In fact, there are several types of candlepower. Most manufacturers use the term to describe the maximum intensity of a light when viewed from the center of a light beam — after the light has been bounced off a reflector to shine in one direction. This also is called peak beam candlepower.

For spotlights, the maximum intensity (candlepower) is concentrated in the center of a very narrow beam. For floodlights, the maximum intensity in the center is lower, but the light is spread over a wider beam. For area lights, the maximum intensity is even lower, but the light is spread over a very large area.

The most important factor for area lights is to have the light intensity distributed fairly evenly over the entire width and height of the area being illuminated, rather than concentrated in the center. Many manufacturers can provide a photometric report with graphs to illustrate the light distribution of their products.

Finally, describing lights in terms of watts is simply a measurement of the amount of electrical power the light uses, not the amount of illumination it produces. Some manufacturers use watts because most people are familiar with household light bulbs being rated this way — that is, a 100-watt bulb produces more illumination than a 60-watt bulb. This approach can be used to compare the relative illumination produced by lights of the same type or design, but it's not accurate when comparing different types or different designs of lights. For example, a high-intensity discharge light can produce as much as four times the light output and illumination as a halogen light using the same number of watts.

Confused? When in doubt, ask the manufacturer.