The Athabasca Volunteer Fire Department is asking the Town of Athabasca for a green light on green lights.
The department has asked the town to craft a bylaw that would allow green lights to be used by volunteer firefighters. The lights would be activated when a volunteer is responding to a call and on their way to the fire hall.
Town administration is working on creating the bylaw now.
The department currently has five personal firefighter vehicles equipped with green lights, but cannot use them without the town passing a bylaw making it legal.
The province of Alberta leaves it up to municipalities to create a bylaw allowing green lights.
Athabasca Fire Chief Denis Mathieu explained that the light could not be red, so firefighters across Canada chose green.
“Red means that you have to move over. It’s by law,” he explained. “The green lights mean it’s voluntary to move over.”
Mathieu said he is hopeful that local residents will cooperate with firefighters when they’re approaching.
“If that green light is behind you, if you could just pull over and let the responder through, that would be greatly appreciated,” he said.
“(The lights) will reduce our response time, and every second counts. Please pull over when safe to do so,” he said.
Green lights are a rural trend that is picking up across Canada.
In the large cities there are full-time firefighters, rendering a green light useless as the firefighters are only responding to calls with a fire truck.
In Athabasca, green lights would help speed up the response time of volunteer firefighters because other drivers would know they are en route to the hall to respond to a call.
Mathieu asks that motorists in the future keep an eye out for vehicles with a green flashing light.
