Red Light outside fire station?

[Troy D. Leist]

I need to find out the reason we put a red light outside the fire station. New Fire Chief is on my %#$ about this. PLEASE HELP!

[ALSfirefighter]

Troy, if you use the search link, or just scan through the pages, there were several posts on this subject a few months ago.
From what I know, here in NY at least, is a red light signifies a firehouse, and I believe that if its not in-service (meaning staff in the building) the light should be off. Same as police stations in NY have green lights outside.

[Troy D. Leist]

thanks

[Turk II]

From what I remember this dates back to the Ben Franklin era... it is my understanding that originally firehouses had a red light on one side and a green light on the other. This is the same setup as the lights on the sides of a seaport.

Since a good number of volunteer firefighters in that time were also sailors the tradition kind of carried over into the fire service.

- Turk II