August 2007

Emergency Crews Demand As Much Light As Possible

By David A. Smith

It would be nice if fire and EMS calls only occurred during daylight hours.

But as anyone in emergency services knows, that’s hardly the case. Calls come at anytime, and rescue crews have a job to do, whether the sun is shining, whether it’s the middle of the night or whether it’s somewhere in between.

When it’s dark, or when natural light is otherwise poor, scene lighting becomes especially critical. And options abound when it comes to getting that light when and where it’s needed. Regardless of how many alternatives are out there, one part of the equation remains constant: the more light the better.

“More powerful lighting is number one,” said Roger Weinmeister, president of Loveland, Colo.-based Command Light, a division of Super Vacuum Manufacturing Company, Inc., which makes SVI Trucks and ventilation equipment in addition to scene lighting. “There is never too much light on an emergency scene.”

Command Light is one of several companies that manufacture the lighting systems emergency crews use to get their work done. Not surprisingly, the types of available scene lighting systems vary widely. But they break down into two basic categories:

• Vehicle-mounted systems. These can be affixed to certain locations on the truck, such as with “brow-mounted” or “recessed” lights built into the truck cab or body. They can also extend from the apparatus from a variety of locations and by a variety of mechanisms, some of which may be manually operated. Others may be mechanically or pneumatically operated.

• Portable Systems. These can run the gamut, from simple hand-held units or ground-based tripods that are typically quick and easy to set up to wheeled units that are towed behind a vehicle.

And, of course, the lights themselves also vary, using Halogen, Xenon, High Intensity Discharge (HID) and other technologies. Not only can the type of bulb affect the amount of useable light, so can the type of reflector that is used in the light.

The operations of the lights and towers themselves have options include systems that are remotely operated via electric, electronic, or pneumatic – with air – setups. Some light towers that are electrically extended and positioned, while others are equipped with electric winch options and still others with air-operated telescoping poles, which operate off the apparatus’ air system.

In addition to more light and better directed light, customers are asking for energy efficiency, lights that draw less electrical current, according to industry experts. They also want systems that are compact, simple to operate and are portable and easy to move. And they want integrated systems.

Low Amp Draw

“You want whatever apparatus you’re bringing to be able to be deployed and light up the scene like it’s daylight,” said Fred Schaefer, technical writer with Fire Research Corp., of Neconset, N.Y.

Founded in 1968, the company not only manufactures portable and apparatus-mounted high-intensity scene lighting, but also safety equipment, controls, instrumentation and displays and accessories such as safety straps and padded safety bars.

“Customers today want more light, period, and high light output with low amp draw, and they want low-profile and compact solutions,” said Mike Bernert, vice president of Warminster, Pa.-based Havis-Shields Equipment Corp. That company, named for its 1928 founders Dan Havis and Jim Shields, manufactures scene lighting products, emergency vehicle lighting and other EMS products.

“When customers spec a truck today, they typically include high-intensity scene lighting on all trucks, even pumpers, whereas typically just your aerials and rescue trucks previously got scene lighting,” Bernert said. “Today, a vehicle can pull up to a scene, hit one switch inside the cab or on the breaker panel and light up 360-degrees around the truck.”

Scene lighting isn’t just limited to what’s on the truck. Portable systems that operate independent of the apparatus are also part of the equation. Not surprisingly, customers for those products also want units that provide high light output and are easy to use, said Doug Dahlgren, product manager at Allmand Bros. Inc., of Holdrege, Neb.

Allmand Bros. got its start in 1938 manufacturing portable welders for farming and, now produces a range of portable power and emergency lighting systems. The company introduced its first portable industrial light tower in 1954, using incandescent bulbs.

“They were fairly large, heavy pieces of equipment for the construction industry,” he said. “Throughout the years, obviously, that changed. There’s been more of an emphasis on more compact units, units that are lighter, easier to set up and lower cost. Size is important. Ease of setup. Maneuverability… That’s really what’s driving a lot of the changes.”

The Will-Burt Company’s involvement in the scene lighting side of its business grew out of customer requests for the products, explained Marlin Nicol, director of lighting sales. The Orrville, Ohio-based company has been in business nearly 90 years and developed its first mobile towers about 25 years ago.

Asking For Towers

In addition to lighting systems, including those with telescoping light towers, Will-Burt also manufactures other products for commercial, mobile, industrial and military applications. Those products include pneumatic masts for antennae.

“The original premise behind the mast was to elevate antennas for military applications,” Nicol said. “That evolved into the TV news-gathering trucks.”

In the early 1980s, fire and EMS crews noticed the news crew trucks and began asking truck builders for the towers, Nicol said. That prompted another evolution, from early mast-mounted systems to roof-mounted and fold-down units, as well as systems of various sizes mounted in various locations on the apparatus.

Initially, the packages were popular on heavy-rescue units, Nicol said. In the early 1980s, there was not as big a market for heavy-rescues, but as the fire service evolved, those units have become more popular, as have hybrid trucks such as rescue-pumpers and pumper-rescues.

“That just added to the need for more types of lighting,” he said. “There’s a lot more trucks doing rescue-type work, and rescue work needs good lighting.”

Typically, customers want maximum light output provided with greatest electrical efficiency, said Jay Johnson, director of product marketing for Wooster, Ohio-based Akron Brass Co. In 2004 Akron acquired the former GFE Manufacturing in Washington, Ill. That operation makes lighting, as well as telescopic poles, tripods, cord reels and other products.

Additionally, Johnson said customers want the flexibility or the ability to provide lighting to areas that may not be right next to the apparatus.

“This leads to the need for greater portability and set-up performance away from a given truck,” he said. There is also a range of mounting systems, from the cab brow, to recessed-body to telescopic pole configurations.

“On one fire truck alone, you may have three or four different kinds of mounted lights,” said FRC’s Schaefer, and they can include systems with telescoping poles, lights mounted on the side of the apparatus and another popular option, “brow mounts,” which are mounted on the roof edge of the apparatus and are capable of flooding the area in front of the truck with light.

When Super Vac first started building rescue trucks, the company developed its Super Vac Light Tower, according to Weinmeister of Command Light. The towers were raised using a hydraulic cylinder similar to those used on dump truck boxes.

“By the late 1980s, most of the other hydraulic components had been changed to other – mainly electric motor – options for power,” he said. “We redesigned the tower to work only off electricity, since the electricity was required to power the lights. At the same time, it was designed to mount flush on top of the vehicle.”

He said his company has “stayed with the philosophy that the lighting needs to be quick, easy to position, overhang the vehicle for technical work and stand up to the rigors of emergency service work.”

Efficiency of the lighting systems is also key, said Akron’s Johnson.

“We continue to see the need for optimized efficiency – greatest useful lumens of light output for a given amp draw,” he says. “With all the electrical demands on a given fire apparatus, ambulance or rescue vehicle, lowering the amp draw for scene light is certainly a great benefit on the power resource requirements of a given vehicle.”

Not only that, but because today’s emergency vehicles need to fill multiple roles and need to be prepared to respond in a greater variety of environments than ever before, they also need to be able to operate independently of each other and have their own lighting capabilities, said Bernert, the Havis-Shields vice president.

“The days of bringing out the heavy rescue just for scene lighting are gone,” he said. “There are a number of competing technologies in the scene lighting market. Each of these technologies has advantages and disadvantages.”

As a result, departments should be prepared to devote time to determine what products best meet their requirements.

“It is important that customers research the application,” he said. “The ‘bigger-is-better’ mentality of buying the highest wattage light does not work today. There are too many new technologies that offer high-output and lower-amperage products.”

For more information contact: Command Light, 1-800-797-7974, www.commandlight.com; Fire Research Corp.,
631-724-8888, www.fireresearch.com; Allmand, 800-562-1373, www.allmandss.com; Akron Brass, 800-228-1161, www.akronbrass.com; Havis-Shields, 800-524-9900, www.havis-shields.com; Will-Burt, 330-682-7015, www.will-burt.com.

Akron Brass offers a line of portable scene lights with cord reels, lamp head and a gang box.                     (Akron Brass Photo)

FRC’s FOCUS lamp heads are low profile and designed to direct 100 percent of the light directly on the scene.