In an era of distracted drivers and demanding scenes, firefighters face many obstacles, but seeing (and being seen) shouldn’t be one of them. Yet many responders are left in the dark with LEDs that are all too often fixed to the corners of their apparatus instead of being mounted on a versatile light tower, which clusters and directs all of the truck’s usable light.
Now, there’s no reason to eliminate the ever-essential light tower thanks to Command Light’s newest addition — the Helios light tower line-up. Already renowned in the industry for its dependable light towers, Command Light has partnered with the FireTech team and HiViz LED lighting to develop the Command Light-exclusive Helios LED. These FireTech lights reduce the cost of a new tower by 33% while delivering 14,000 lumens per fixture.
The Helios can be utilized on the following Command Light towers:
- The mid-size Knight Series tower delivers a reach of nearly 2.3m from its base.
- The Shadow Series offers a 1.4m reach, or 2.0m reach with optional arm.
- The Straight Shadow maintains elevated lighting with 1.1m reach without rotation.
- The C-Lite, Command Light’s most compact tower, provides a 60cm reach, rotational capabilities and 120 degrees of tilt.
Both the Knight and Shadow Series feature 360 degrees of continuous rotation, along with Command Light’s patented movement, which delivers endless positions, including the tower’s unique streetlight position that overhangs the side of a vehicle for work-area illumination. Meanwhile, the tower’s backlight option enables the bottom row of lamp heads to rotate 180 degrees for dual-scene illumination.
With all of this functionality, light towers do several important things that truck-mounted LEDs can’t. With corner-mounted LEDs, only HALF of the light output is directed at the scene, and this eye-level light creates glare for crews. Meanwhile, a light tower clusters ALL of your fixtures to gather and direct light for maximum output, much like sport stadium lights. The difference is night and day, and Command Light has conducted several comparison studies (available on its website) to demonstrate the effectiveness of a light tower.
‘Aside from elevating and gathering light, towers also provide valuable directional capabilities, helping illuminate irrigation ditches, mountain slopes and other terrain,’ Command Light President Roger Weinmeister said. ‘We reached a point where the cost of LEDs really started to hamper departments and their ability to spec a light tower, and to us, that just wasn’t right, which led to the evolution of the Helios tower line-up. We hope this new offering will help departments elevate their lighting decisions.’
For more information, go to www.commandlight.com
