ORLANDO, Fla. – Seventy thousand firefighters in Central Florida and across the country are turning to a UL tested photo-luminescent material to provide an instant green glowing light on their gear and equipment when back-up generators and exit sign batteries fail.
Zachary Green, a former Marine and volunteer firefighter in Cincinnati, said he was watching a Discovery Channel report on enhanced photo-luminescent crystals when he had the Eureka moment that led to the founding of LumAware.
“Basically what we’ve done is developed a new type of glow in the dark called advanced photo luminescent technology," he said. “We’ve taken the base line glow in the dark material and found a way to make it grow brighter and longer and charge faster than any other product in the market.”
The material, used by firefighters in Apopka and other Florida fire stations, delivers an instant light source when power fails and first responders are making their way through smoke and a pitch black building.
The LumAware products “last indefinitely,” according to Green, whose company just installed exit signs and stairway identification signs at the Del Mar building in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday.
“What we didn’t know at the time is all the applications this would have for stairwells and exit signs for the greater civilian population,” Green said.
Green said first responders consider the material a safety lifeline, especially when people in a burning building or hotel are able to exit with the help of the exit signs equipped with the material he calls “glow sticks on steroids."
The company, established in 2010, took in $100,000 in the first month of sales and according to Green, never looked back.
Green said his biggest concern is that many Orlando-area hotels are still not installing signs at floor level.
“It’s in the code here in Florida," Green said. "But it’s not being enforced and that frustrates me.”
Green, in Orlando recently to present his products to fire inspectors from counties across the state, said many inspectors were not aware of the new code.
News 6 checked with David Kilbury, the fire marshal with Orange County Fire and Rescue. Kilbury provided the current codes that pertain to the placement of exit signs.
The code pertaining to floor proximity exit signs dictates that, “Such signs shall be located near the floor level in addition to those signs required for doors or corridors.”
"We really need to be more proactive in using this," Green said. "(People) don’t know that if the power went out in a building and the generator failed, they’re not going to be able to find their way out of that building.”
Green said he is making the floor level signs and warning strips available to homeowners, too.
For more information, visit www.lumawaresafety.com.