Volunteer Firefighter Lights: What's Legal on Your POV

Volunteer firefighter lights are legal on a personal vehicle (a POV) in most states, once your chief or the state signs off. We checked the law in all 50 states: 41 let a volunteer add warning lights to their own car or truck. Most make them red. Eleven use blue, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and Washington uses green.

What the lights let you do matters more than their color. In 17 states an authorized, lit POV counts as an emergency vehicle while you respond. In 19 others the lights are a courtesy: they ask drivers to yield, but you still stop at red lights and drive the speed limit. Six states do not let members respond with lights at all.

Courtesy light or emergency vehicle: what your lights let you do

State law puts a volunteer's lit POV in one of two groups, and the group decides whether you can speed, go through a red light or run a siren.

Can volunteer firefighters speed? Only in the emergency-vehicle states, only while responding (never on the way home), and only with the required lights and siren running. Alaska, Iowa and North Dakota fall in between: they allow some speed but no right to go through a red light. In Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri the statutes conflict or are silent, and the table says what each one does say.

Volunteer firefighter light laws in all 50 states

Find your state below. "Who signs off" is the authorization the law names, and your department can add its own rules on top. Each row links the statute or state rule it comes from.

Checked against each state's statutes and rules on September 24, 2026. Laws change, so confirm the current rule with your chief and your state before you buy or install anything.

Your state assigns the color: red in most, blue in 11

Red is the fire service's color, and 28 of the states that allow member lights make them red, or red and white. In most of those states blue belongs to the police, and in some the offense is simply having it: North Carolina makes it illegal to possess a blue light, and Hawaii bans even putting one on a vehicle.

Eleven states give volunteers blue instead, and in most of them blue is a courtesy light. New York allows one blue light, Pennsylvania and New Jersey up to two, and Indiana up to four. Washington is the only state that gives volunteer firefighters green, and its law calls the light identification only. Chief officers often get more than members: in New York and Pennsylvania, a chief's vehicle runs red lights and counts as an emergency vehicle. For what each color means on the road, see all emergency light colors and their purpose.

A siren comes with emergency-vehicle status, not before it

Most states tie the siren to emergency-vehicle status. Where a lit POV is an emergency vehicle, a siren is allowed and often required: Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina make the siren part of the deal, and their privileges apply only while it sounds. Where the lights are a courtesy, the siren is usually banned: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and Virginia allow members no siren at all.

A few states split the two. Massachusetts and Tennessee allow a member's siren but grant no traffic privileges, and Missouri allows one with the chief's written permit.

Six states do not let members respond with lights

Alabama, Arizona, Nevada and Oklahoma do not let volunteers drive with warning lights on a personal vehicle. Nevada's code lists "privately owned vehicles of volunteer firefighters" among the vehicles that "are not emergency vehicles." Oklahoma's Attorney General ruled in 1983 that departments "may not authorize" volunteers' lights, and a 2013 bill that would have allowed them died in committee. Alabama's state police allow a volunteer's lights only when the car is parked at a scene.

California and Maryland limit lights to officers. California's Highway Patrol can permit the chief, an assistant chief and one designee. Maryland allows up to five officers per company, with MVA approval.

Get the sign-off in writing before you wire anything

The state sets the outer limits, and your department can set tighter ones. Work through it in this order:

1. Ask your chief first. Find out whether the department allows member lights, which color, and what its policy says about using them.
2. Get the authorization your state names. In most states that is a letter or card from the chief. Some want a state permit as well: the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Safety in Georgia and Minnesota, the State Fire Marshal in Ohio and West Virginia.
3. Keep it with you. Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Vermont all require you to carry the permit, and New York wants the chief's written authorization on your person whenever the light is on.
4. Buy one color: the one your state assigns. In some states the offense is having the light, not using it. South Carolina counts a light as displayed "whether activated or not," and Illinois bans red lights on a member's car "whether lighted or unlighted."
5. Light it only while you are responding. Not on the way home, and never to get through traffic on a personal errand.
6. Cover it when you are off duty. Oregon requires fire company lights to be covered when they are not in use, and Vermont requires the lamps to be removed, covered or hooded when someone other than a responder is driving.

Lights that fit a personal vehicle

Most volunteers want warning lights that disappear when the call is over, because the truck is also the family vehicle. These setups fit:

A dash light is the simplest start. The Fusion 2X mounts inside the windshield and is single-color, offered in red, blue, amber, white and green.

Find the right setup through a Feniex dealer

Use the dealer locator to find an authorized Feniex dealer or upfitter near you, or browse the Deck & Dash lights that come out of the vehicle when your shift ends.