By Bill Adams
An exasperating place to be is in the firehouse kitchen having coffee with the Raisin Squad. It’s frustrating when geezers drift off into their personal la-la lands recalling something from times past that has nothing to do with the current discussion. Their word salad can change a conversation’s topic in a heartbeat. Too much caffeine is bad for white hairs.
Harvey Eckart, an out-of-town Raisin, sent the attached Keith Kemery photo of a 1965 Ward La France Ambassador rescue truck taken at a Pennsylvania fire truck muster. The sharp looking rig has fender skirts covering the rear wheels, half doors on open jump seats, reflective striping, plenty of warning devices, and abundant gold leafing including descriptions of each compartment’s contents. Thinking the geezers would like to see it because it was from the era when they were active, I brought the attached picture, not knowing the Squad’s most vocal critics were waiting in ambush.
Some old people have abused the privilege of being miserable. None said the rig was good looking. They said: “That’s stupid, there ain’t a white top.” “Couldn’t they remember what’s in the compartments?” “Nobody uses porta-powers anymore.” Saying it’s an antique didn’t matter: “Look at all them Circle D lights. That’s why you showed us the picture—you used to sell them.” “What the hell’s a pure air tank?” “Who keeps foam on a rescue truck?” I fired back, “We did.” “Yeah, but it came off in the 1970s.” I’ve known some of these guys for 50 years. You’d think they’d cut me some slack.
“Look at that—they recessed the bell in the cowl. Who recesses bells like that?” “That’s stupid.” “It’s gotta cost a ton. You salesmen talk people into stuff like that to get higher commissions.” It was a no-win scenario. “Why don’t they recess sirens like that today.” I said because most radiators sit close to the cab fascia. “So? Move it.”
Then they started on the warning lights. “There’s only one beacon ray. We always had two.” “Look at them old fashion red flashers.” They were tweaking me because I like large, low, and slow flashing red lights. Then it was “How come it doesn’t have a light bar?” I said, “The rig’s an antique. Fully enclosed light bars were just becoming popular when it was built.” “It doesn’t matter. They could’ve added one.” I should’ve stayed home.
One younger Raisin, a former chief, said he talked to a couple guys who went to FDIC International. Knowing I hadn’t been to a trade show in a couple years, he elaborated: “Your buddy Sam we always see at the Harrisburg show is selling lightbars now. You remember him, that young kid with a wild haircut who always weard a ball cap and sells scene lights out of a green truck.” Talking about the Ward La France turned into wondering why Sam is getting into the lightbar market.
Impressions
I formally met Sam Massa around 10 years ago. He was in the area peddling his lights to a mutual friend—another volunteer chief who owned a business manufacturing telescoping light poles and accessories. Having ended a 25-year run of owning a business selling fire equipment and apparatus, I was familiar with manufacturers. My first impression was he was young, energetic, and talked as fast as a whippoorwill’s wings flap in a windstorm. Nothing has changed.
Over the years, we kept in touch at trade shows. He seemed well-versed and proficient in his little niche in the lighting market, and he obviously spent many years cracking the books in school. I was correct in my earlier assumption but way off kilter on the latter. He’s a high school drop-out who’s come a long way.
Old people thrive on passing judgement, so I had to know why he started selling lightbars. Why enter an established market with some manufacturers that’ve been around for 75 some-odd years that regularly try to eat each other’s lunch? What makes this guy tick? He agreed to a one-on-one interview in simple, understandable terminology Raisins can understand.
When researching Sam, one industry veteran said he’s a marketing machine that makes the most of social media platforms. So began our cat-and-mouse game where he’s explaining why he got into the lightbar business knowing well I’m not going to “sell” his warning lights for him. It was game on.
The Market
My bailiwick in retirement is bloviating about fire trucks in general and people who make and sell them. The folks themselves are seldom talked about except for how and why they started selling fire trucks. The warning light market is a new area for me to dabble in. The last time I had any say in purchasing lights was when chairing an apparatus purchasing committee in 1989.
Because I sold my fire equipment business in the late 1990s, I sought input from current and former players still in business. Most would not talk on the record. I don’t like using unnamed sources. However, I concur with what was said, so I’m consolidating, paraphrasing, and plagiarizing their statements as my own. Politicians and white hairs do it all the time.
There’s about a dozen manufacturers specializing in “regulated” emergency services (fire/police/EMS) warning light systems such as those recognized by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Names are irrelevant so they’re omitted. Also omitted are names of those no longer in business and the multiple manufacturers of nonregulated warning lights.
The warning light market is not growing exponentially. Any business acquired by a new or existing company is taken from someone else. There’re only so many bites in an apple. Merriam-Webster defines an innovation as “a new idea, method, or device.” It’s something original like an invention. An evolution is an improvement or a change to something already existing. An example of an invention is the first light bulb. An evolution is the LED as a light source. Buyer, beware: a product’s first invention is not necessarily the best variation of that product on the market. Sam knows this well.
Early Entrepreneur
Sam’s entrepreneurship drew him to electronics and lighting. I’ve reduced his multiple voluminous emails explaining how. Sam: “My first job was a disc jockey starting a ‘real’ company in middle school when I was 13 or so. We did stage lighting and equipment rental at the same time doing DJ gigs. I did it until 2007.”
A high school teacher he described as an overly-aggressive environmental activist proclaimed that the benefits of biofuels would save the planet. Potential financial benefits influenced Sam to drop out of high school in Northern Virginia to start a biofuel business. He later created a system using vegetable oil as a fuel source catering to many well-to-do people who used Hummers and similar off-road vehicles. Sam: “I made a few mistakes in that business, and it ended up failing. It was embarrassing not to succeed. I spent what some folks would on a college education but learned a lot of hard business/life lessons that I use today in my successful business that I never would have learned from a college professor.”
In 2010/2011, he started HiViz Lighting with the initial objective of importing lights for the tow-truck market. It didn’t go as planned. His next venture manufacturing flashlights was equally unrewarding. He became immersed in self-educating himself in the technological aspects of vehicle lighting and especially that for the fire service.
I asked him how the heck biofuel and vegetable oil relate to electronics? Sam: “The fuel system I created had to be automated, which required an electrical system and tech design. The biofuel market we specialized selling to was mainly industrial vehicles and recreational off-the-road trucks. Because of my lighting background, I sold off-road lights and accessories to the folks who brought their trucks in for upfit with my fuel systems.” I asked if he received any formal education after earning his GED: “Various fire academy things and EMT training, but not any ‘school’ school.
Talk-the-Talk
Listening to Sam talk is frustrating for Raisins. He talks fast, in technical detail, and for a very very long time. He told of attending his first fire service show, the South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo in August 2011. One fire chief took Sam under his wing, mentoring him to get some fire and rescue experience service so he could speak “their” language. Sam joined the local volunteer fire department and got certified as an EMT. He still is today.
About a year ago, I asked why he called himself HiViz’s Chief Technologist. Sam: “I always said I was a liaison between firefighters who didn’t speak engineer and engineers who didn’t speak firefighter. My role in the early days was to develop technology by marrying these two interest groups together.”
Asked if HiViz’s FireTech brand reflects only products for the emergency services, Sam replied: “Yes, the FireTech brand focuses solely on the public safety sector although HiViz, the parent company, does have arms in other markets. HiViz Lighting, Inc. is a formal corporation, and I own the controlling interest in the business.”
Off-Topic but Electrical
Good grief, I’ve babbled like a brook and drifted off topic like the Raisins at coffee. Sam’s interest in electronics jarred my mind that I just read the American fire service was not the first on scene with electric fire trucks.
Neil Wallington, a former firefighter in the London Fire Brigade, has authored many books on the fire service and fire apparatus predominantly in the United Kingdom. His recently published book, The World Encyclopedia of Fire Engines, contains some interesting tidbits on electric fire trucks: “Before the widespread adoption of petroleum-powered vehicles, a number of larger professional brigades experimented with battery-powered fire engines. These were popular for a brief period from about 1905 but were extremely heavy due to the large number of lead-acid batteries needed to provide power to the electric motors.” In it, one photograph shows a rig manufactured in 1905 by the London based Merryweather Company that displayed lettering stating ” Improved Electric Fire Engine.” The interview with Sam will finish later. I need more caffeine.
BILL ADAMS is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board, a former fire apparatus salesman, and a past chief of the East Rochester (NY) Fire Department. He has 50 years of experience in the volunteer fire service.
