On Monday, April 11th, 2011 our Fire and EMS Command vehicles had the first phase of our emergency lighting conversion project completed by Metropolitan Communications in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Back in January, we received official notification that we were awarded a Federal Grant in the amount of $45,000 to upgrade and replace our emergency lighting on our apparatus with new LED technology.

The current lighting on our apparatus is comprised of incandescent bulbs; technology that was new in the 1980s and is now far inferior to more modern electrical equipment. While some of our vehicles purchased in recent years were equipped with a combination of LED and incandescent technology, financial constraints did not allow us to pay for full upgrades to all of our apparatus.

LED lighting requires much less electrical draw on our vehicles and provides greater proven visibility, allowing for additional protection of our personnel when operating on dangerous highways such as the Route 30 Bypass which we protect on a primary basis.

In addition to these lighting upgrades, all of our apparatus will receive new traffic pre-emption emitters which will assist in controlling traffic at intersections while our vehicles are enroute to an emergency. When activated, these systems will change all equipped traffic signals to red, while the direction the emergency vehicle is traveling will be the only direction which remains green. While it is policy for all of our apparatus operators to cautiously proceed through intersections, it becomes safer for not only our personnel but other motorists as well to have traffic brought to a stop when emergency vehicles are entering an intersection.

The Fire Chief and EMS Chief Command Vehicles were the first to be outfitted with these new lights which will provide greater overall visibility and safety for our personnel. The additional lighting for our larger apparatus was not a standard item regularly stocked so those projects will be completed in Phase 2 once the equipment arrives in approximately 6-8 weeks.