Safety in Situational Awareness | FoxFury

Do you carry a small flashlight or penlight in your medical bag? This can be useful to illuminate a patient's wounds or to diagnose a condition, but a handheld light does require you to physically hold the light, leaving you compromised to do your work. The other option is to tuck the light between your shoulder and neck or even clasp the light between your teeth. While these methods will work, they tend to be uncomfortable and inefficient for the first responder.

An estimated 58,250 firefighter injuries occurred in the line of duty in 2018 according to the NFPA United States Fire Injury Report 2018. One way to reduce fireground injuries is to improve visibility in dark structures and at night. Panoramic helmet lighting can increase visibility and situational awareness. You can light up the entire room with just your headlamp. When seconds count, this can mean the difference in quickly assessing injuries and possible threats of a given situation.

Another benefit to a wider beam is reduction in eye fatigue. If your light produces a tight circle of very bright light, your eyes are constantly adjusting to the bright beam and the rapid fall-off to complete darkness around it. This makes your eyes work harder to adjust to those differences, resulting in eye fatigue and potentially headaches, irritability, and impaired vision.

Safety in Situational Awareness

As a firefighter, you must have lights to assist with situational awareness. Right angle lights are often considered a firefighter’s primary light source. Helmet lights provide valuable task lighting to help you see and be seen on the scene. Depending on the style, a helmet light can be a small, powerful searchlight or a broad illumination for short-range tasks. Consider lights with innovative safety features such as Tilt capability, this allows you to aim a front-mounted light head up or down. Another important feature to look for is a Rear Safety LED, a flashing or solid LED provides visibility for a firefighter from behind to indicate the position of a firefighter on the scene.

Helmet lights should be a top consideration for every firefighter when you are looking for personal lighting. For more information on selecting the right lighting option for your helmet, visit www.foxfury.com.