Best Flashlight for Firemen....

[benchmade_boy]

Interesting. Would other coloured led fare better? like infrared or blue, green etc.

you can not see infared with the naked eye, althrough if they had NV you may be able to see through smoke as i know you can see through fog, BUT you would be blind once you saw the flame:duck:, and you dont really have much depth preception. you may be better off with a :candle:

 

[cqbdude]

Yes...basically all of my high end flashlights and even all of my very bright ones are useless when Im in a smoke filled house...or building...

Well maybe they will be able to find my dead body , since my Cree flashlight will still be working because its efficient ..

 

[benchmade_boy]

do you have glo-toob FX? or what kind of beekon do you use?

 

[davenlei]

I have a Mag that I put a SSC in and it did creat a much tighter and brighter hotspot that the Lux that was on the MAGLED drop in. It does throw better and tighter but it is also a very white beam that may reflect off of the smoke more.

 

[Campdavid]

Streamlight Survivor Incan....it's the way to go! My brother is a sales rep for a company that specializes in equipment for Fire Fighters and Police etc. The SL Survivor is the most popular and highest rated!

 

[kanarie]

Impressive,
Made me to rethink my escape plan in case of fire/smoke
anyone knows if another color or UV or IR changes the limited view in smoke?

 

[not2bright]

Why doesn't a company make a light with selectable white, amber, and red/orange emitters?

It seems that there could be a nice market in the firefighting industry.

 

[carbine15]

Impressive,
Made me to rethink my escape plan in case of fire/smoke
anyone knows if another color or UV or IR changes the limited view in smoke?

If you're in a fire in your own house, even with all the smoke and darkness, you should be able to get out just by memory without a light. The trouble will be when you go back in to save all your precious gems you've been collecting over the years and get overtaken by the smoke.

Your best bet is to get your naked butt out the door and watch the flames from a neighbor's house. Firefighters don't know your house, so they are the ones that need to penetrate the smoke to navigate and find you clutching your flashlights in the fetal position crying about lost lumens.

 

[cedarcreek]

I'm certainly no expert here, but the first light that comes to my mind is a Pelican 3C Sabrelight: http://pelican.com/lights_detail.php?recordID=2000

Where some lights have an orange peel reflector to soften the beam and make it a little more floody, these have a (prefocused) lamp potted in a precise smooth reflector, and while it does have some small amount of flood, the main beam is all throw. It's the closest thing I've seen to a white laser beam pattern (mentioned above). Of all the lights I have, if it were smoky, this is the one I'd reach for. I've seen them for $21 or $28 in quantity one, and you have to use alkalines (3 C batteries) for all the safety ratings to be valid.

CPF seems to have a lot of Surefire fanatics. I own one Surefire (soon to be 2) and about 10 Pelicans. This is the second "Pelican Advertisement" post I've made (out of a very small number), and I need to say I have no financial interest in Pelican. Having said that, I'd also like to...

...Point to a video on their website (again). It's either "What makes a flashlight safe?" or "Safety Approvals" on this page: http://pelican.com/media/videos/index.php In the video the guy beats this flashlight against the floor. Pretty hard, too.

On one hand this is futile. Some days the smoke is going to be too thick for any light to help you, and your only choice is going to be to feel your way out. But on the other hand, the smoke isn't always that bad, and testing a few lights in it will almost certainly be a good use of your time.

 

[jumpstat]

you can not see infared with the naked eye, althrough if they had NV you may be able to see through smoke as i know you can see through fog, BUT you would be blind once you saw the flame:duck:, and you dont really have much depth preception. you may be better off with a :candle:

Yeah, you are right. We go in to help in the end got fried and blind as well......

 

[clipse]

I've got a Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Lux on my helmet and usually have a Streamlight Survivor (LED) clipped to my gear when we leave. Both work wonderfully. Very tight beam with minimal spill.

clipse

 

[walkabout]

I don't pretend to be an expert, but here's something to consider:

Firefighters deal with a lot more than smoke. There's spilled gasoline from car crashes, hydrogen from cracked car batteries, natural gas leaks, and in fact every industrial chemical known to man (... reactive, oxidizing, flammable, explosive, toxic ...).

I would guess that a firefighter's flashlight should be UL listed for hazardous/flammable atmospheres, the same listing required for industrial sites such as refineries and chemical plants.

That probably rules out metal-bodied lights entirely.

 

[Shreklight]

We have Koeheler lights on our trucks and they're okay, the run time is bad, because the batteries are like 6 yrs. old, and it's never " in the budget to replace the battery packs on 60 or so flashlights". So anyway, I bought my own Streamlight Survivor LED, it throws a tight white beam which does pretty well, unless it is very heavy smoke, or you have already opened the nozzle and are making alot of steam, then you do get alot of reflection off the steam, and lose alot of your beam. We had a 3 room job that had flashed maybe two weeks ago and my captain knowing I'm a " flashlight guy" as he puts it, commented on how he could see my beam reaching further than his, and he was in front of me. Side note, ALWAYS have a backup light on you.

 

[Mike Painter]

In any situation where there is smoke or fog, the best way to hold the light is, as somebody mentioned, is away from your body. That minimizes the light that is reflected back to your eyes and you *will* be able to see better.

In smoke or fog, you should pretend your light is a foglight and hold it as low as possible because there will be less material there to block the outgoing light.

I hope you were not allowed to use the light while you actually trained. Sooner or later if you are in a larger department you will encounter a situation where no amount of light will help and it may hinder you.
We have lights that clip to our coats and are held by velcro. In a crawling situation the velcro can be undone and the light flops down so it still shines in front of us.
It's a handy light but my new cree is brighter and when used against my "old" Mod a mag with three LEDs it dissappears when I light something up on high.

 

[cqbdude]

Here is a crappy video I took , using my Fenix P1D CE when the smoke was a little less thick...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNh6-dmZEis

 

[carbine15]

Here is a crappy video I took , using my Fenix P1D CE when the smoke was a little less thick...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNh6-dmZEis

This is a private video. If you have been sent this video, please make sure you accept the sender's friend request.

 

[woodrow]

I am not a firefighter, but the other week when I was foolish enough to post my survivorLED in the B/S/T section, A firefighter asked about buying it. He said his department had good luck with them.

 

[gadget_lover]

I'll let the beam shot for the pelican 2010 or 2410 speak for itself.

There is no side spill. The yellow light is from the overhead 100 watt incan. The beam is all hotspot. I seem to recall that was an 18 inch hotspot at 20 feet.

The light is rated for hazerdous environments and runs on 3 C cells.

Daniel

 

[cqbdude]

Here is the crappy video....lets try it again..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNh6-dmZEis

 

[CLHC]

Interesting. Now I knows what those who fight fires are talking about. I wonder about the thick "black" smoke filled rooms and how any particular light fairs at all. . .