What are the differences between the Red and Blue flashing lights (aka “lights” or ” sirens”)?
The flashing light is called a beacon. The red beacon denotes a fire department-owned vehicle such as the ones on our Vehicle page. The blue beacon denotes the private vehicle of an Indiana resident affiliated with a volunteer fire department. Any time you are approached by a vehicle with either colored beacon flashing like the one’s pictured above you are legally required to yield the right-of-way, usually by safely maneuvering your vehicle to a stop and off to the side of the road.A beacon is sometimes referred to as a “light” or “siren.” While the light reference is accurate, a siren is actually the sound-generating accessory on the emergency vehicle that you hear rather than see. Sirens make the following sounds: Yelp, Yelp 2, Woop, and Hyperyelp. Our rescue and brush vehicles use sirens that can make those sounds. Most of our fire trucks use a Federal Q mechanical siren. The vehicles also have air horns although an air horn is not considered a siren.
