Got to justify my recent procurements....fire

Last night, 11pm, I heard a big truck outside my house. Grabbed a few lights (U2, SF G2 P61, Fenix L1P in pocket already), and went to look. Ended up being a Fire truck. There was a big fire in the woods about 500 yards from our house, basically accross the street and 400 yeards behind the neighbors. Me and a neighbor, with U2 & G2, walked through the woods to the fire, as the firetrucks were starting to arrive. The fire was maybe 45' accross and 25' back. The only other guy there said when he called the firestation the fire was raging near the tops of the pine trees (40-50' high). Now it was a bit wider, maybe 25' high. There has been a burn ban here for 3 weeks, FORTUNATELY we had major rain a couple days ago, or this could have been worse.

They started with 1 hose from a water tank on a truck, then got extensions and ran it from a hydrant. 1 hose, then they needed to get more so split the main to 3 hoses as another truck came. I only saw 1 flashlight in use, an old cheap 6v lantern style by on eof the fireman. My U2 & G2 P61 were used so they could see where they were stepping, since the footing was very bad with dried branches and brush near the edge of the fire. A couple other spectators now had flashlights, they all turned them off since they were invisible compared to the U2 and G2. We stuck around till they had most of it out.

Made me wonder why they wouldn't have some reasonable flashlights. I would not want to walk around the weak edge of that fire without seeing where I was stepping. I know the U2 is expensive, but at least a couple Maxfire XL's or something that they can see with. I got a buddy who's a fireman, I'm going to ask him what the deal is. My favorite quote last night "Those things are bright! Wow, look at how small it is!"

Sure the fire didn't start from the P61 ? :naughty:

I think the problem is general knowledge on flashlights and the assumption of presence of street lights maybe ? I mean...not many people (including people that need them) realise a market of high tech/quality flashlights exist and are quite readily obtainable.

Not only don't a lot of fire personnel know about these lights, not many can afford them. The budgets are usually tight even in non-volunteer departments.

I will say, even I was impressed with my U2, the flood and the wide spot. It really lit up a big area very nicely. It seems the U2 lights really well on certain colors (ex: brown), whereas on Green it doesn't. However, the G2 lights great on green, but not so good on brown (yellower beam). LED vs Incan. I guess it depends on what you're lighting.

Tremendo said:

Last night, 11pm, I heard a big truck outside my house. Grabbed a few lights (U2, SF G2 P61, Fenix L1P in pocket already)

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whoa you carry so many things in your pocket at 11pm? :naughty:

lazee said:

whoa you carry so many things in your pocket at 11pm? :naughty:

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I meant the Fenix was in my pocket, I guess you could take it either way how I worded it. L1P next to my Benchmade. That's my normal carry.

That's kinda strange, that the department doesn't have good lights. Our local volunteer units in the rural area where I'm from carry Streamlight Liteboxe's and Survivor's as well as some groups having the new Pelican Recoil LED lights and swearing by them. Also a lot of the guys buy Ultrastinger's and SL-20's to have on their own.

WDR65 said:

That's kinda strange, that the department doesn't have good lights.

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Maybe they just didn't have the lights there. I saw them set up to spray the water, and they were moving around the fire's edge with nasty brush & piles of dry braches and no lights at their feet. Looked very dangerous to me, that's when I shined mine. Maybe they're just tougher than me .