True Stories

I was in Florida with my grandmother when a tornado plowed through her house and totally destroyed it. It was pitch dark out, and I was awakened from bed as the tornado was approaching. There was no power and no light from the moon, making the conditions pitch black. I found my way to a safe place in the basement, where my grandmother and I had planned to meet in such an incident. When I went to the basement room, she was not there as the tornado went through the house.

After the storm subsided, I searched the house, now destroyed, with my SureFire Kroma® and found my 89-year-old grandmother seriously injured and unable to move. Not only did the light help me find my grandmother, it helped me flag down a paramedic unit searching our road. If it hadn't been for my Kroma, I would not have been able to see anything!

My grandmother and I are extremely grateful to SureFire for making such a superior product.

Nate S.
New Hampton, NY

I am a paramedic who splits his time between two jobs. The first is performing critical care inter-facility transports for a large urban health system, and the second is as a 911 paramedic in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Some time ago I purchased your L4 Digital LumaMax®. I have to admit, the light seemed to carry a hefty price tag relative to other tactical illuminators on the market; however, the cheaper models were just not holding up, and I rely on my flashlight in some pretty unusual circumstances. But after the events of this evening, I would gladly pay twice the asking price for this light.

On the way back from a call, my partner and I were flagged down by several people who reported that a local man was trapped under some wreckage in a salvage yard. Apparently he'd been searching through a pile of scrap metal when the pile gave way. He fell from the heap and became pinned down, face down, under a car chassis, a steel I-beam, a boiler casing, and various other metal objects. It was a major rescue operation to free the man, who easily had a ton of wreckage on top of him. The rescue involved a heavy rescue company, a specialized structure collapse unit, and many additional engines and ladders.

The firefighters were using a brand of flashlight geared toward the emergency response community, but these lights were like dim candles. So, out popped my L4. It was the smallest light on scene, but also the brightest, so the vast portion of the rescue operation was performed while illuminated by my flashlight. Numerous police officers and firefighters commented of the brightness of the light during the rescue. In fact, the only brighter lights on the scene was the one connected directly to a portable generator and the 5,000,000 candlepower search light on the helicopter above us--but neither of these units were available until near the end of the operation. My L4 remained at near full intensity for the entire 90 minute operation without any noticeable reduction in output.

Keep up the good work, SureFire. I can't see myself ever buying another brand of flashlight again.

Eric R.
Pennsylvania

I often go walking late at night; I enjoy the cool, calm air and the peace and quiet. One night, I was out for a stroll, my SureFire E2D LED Defender® and my laser pointer in my pocket, when I came upon a group of four males, all 18-20 years old, harassing and annoying a young lady. I shouted at them and told them to leave the woman alone. Two of them stopped the woman from leaving, and the other two approached me.

As the two males approached me, it was clear they were looking for confrontation. So I immediately drew my E2D LED with my right hand, held it like a pistol, and blasted out its max output. This really made them stop in their tracks. Then I pulled out my laser pointer and pointed that at them. The two males were dazzled, shocked, and had to sit down to absorb what had just happened. I then approached the two males who were continuing to harass and annoy the young women. I was concerned this was a potential rape in the making. After seeing what had happened to their chums, they said, "We're not looking for any trouble," and became very passive. I said, "That's funny, because before I pulled out my torch and laser pointer, you were itching for a fight, and were hassling this lady."

The males ran off, and I helped the lady back to her house. She said to me, "That was incredible, like something out of a movie." I replied, "These things don't always have such a good ending. I will be reporting this to the police; they just walked right under a CCTV camera at the library."

Before waving goodbye, the lady asked what make of torch I had. I said, "SureFire." She didn't even mention the laser pointer.

Peter G.
Longniddry, UK

I'm an over-the-road truck driver, and I was rolling westbound across Kansas, on I-70, just past Salina, when I saw a blink of a red light down in a ravine, about 300 feet down. I pulled over and grabbed my big 3,000,000-candela flashlight and headed down the ravine, where I discovered a wreck. Just as I reached the bottom of the ravine, my big light died on me. Luckily, I had my SureFire E2D LED Defender® in my pocket.

I found a driver pinned in a jeep; he had clearly rolled it a few times. I helped him get out of the jeep and pulled him to a safe place before climbing back up the ravine to my truck to get a blanket. I had already called for help, so I took the blanket back down and covered up the driver and stayed with him until help came. Then I climbed back up, using my Defender to light the way, to help the police and EMTs.

A state trooper thanked me and told me it was a good thing I found him, because as badly cut up as he was and as cold as it was, he would've surely died by morning. I owe my safety and that driver's life to my Defender, and I never leave home without it.

Roger L.
Chubbuck, ID

My brother Kevin and I are both part of our local volunteer river-rescue team. For his birthday last year, I bought him a SureFire L1 LumaMax®—it was the perfect gift for an active man like him.

While on patrol one dark, cold evening, we received a call that a local fisherman was in trouble on the water. Within a matter of minutes, Kevin, me, and another volunteer reached the fisherman's small boat, which had beached itself on one of the notorious sand banks dotted around our stretch of river. The fisherman was in obvious distress and informed us that his daughter had fallen overboard prior to beaching the boat. She was wearing her life jacket, but we knew that, apart from drowning, hypothermia was a real risk. We had to get her out of the water fast.

As we are a volunteer force, our equipment isn't always state of the art, and the spotlight we had on the boat perfectly illustrated this fact. We knew roughly where the girl had hit the water and where the tide would likely have carried her. After 10 minutes of searching, we could hear her calling for help. It was then that the batteries died on the boat's spotlight. To be honest, it was almost comical, except a little girl's life was at stake. Luckily, Kevin had his L1 at hand. That little torch lit up the water for a good distance in front of the boat and straight away illuminated the girl's position. Kevin pulled her from the water, and we took the girl and her father back to the boathouse to get warm.

A few days later, the other volunteer and I both received SureFires from the fisherman as a way to say thanks.

Eoin, M.
Dublin, Ireland

Less than a week after receiving an L4 LumaMax® and a Kroma® in the mail, they both proved invaluable in assisting an injured motorist in the dead of night. I was driving on a major highway, coming home late one night, when a car in front of me lost control, rolled multiple times, and collided head-on with a disabled flatbed on the side of the road. I pulled over immediately. When I ran to the scene of the crash, others were trying desperately to peer into the upturned car, looking for survivors, but without any light they could not see anything. My L4 changed that immediately.

With its wide, bright beam, I was able to quickly locate a passenger in the back seat and see he was still conscious, albeit with a badly broken leg. He told us there were two more people in the front of the car, and I was able to locate both of them with the L4. With horror, I realized they were hopelessly pinned inside the car, and neither was breathing or had a pulse. With gasoline and oil spilling from the car's mangled engine, we decided to extricate the lone survivor before the situation worsened. Holding back the passenger's wrecked door, I held my L4 on the scene as others pulled him from the smoking wreckage.

In the meantime I'd given my Kroma, set with its red surrounding LEDs and its main beam on, to another good Samaritan to wave off traffic coming around the bend. When firefighters arrived on the scene, a number were without lights, so I lent them my flashlights

Thanks for designing flashlights that perform so well — even under such terrible circumstances. Every motorist should have at least one SureFire in his or her glove box at all times.

Evan C.
McLean, VA

After graduating college in May of 2010, a good friend and mentor thought he and I should plan an afternoon hike, where he could show me the ins and outs of orienteering. This was something I had no experience in, so I liked the idea. We ended up going in mid-August to a very large national park a couple of hours from where we live, and we chose a large section of the park that had no marked trails.

We started our hike at noon, and in a few hours we realized we'd bitten off more than we could chew. The terrain in this part of the park is quite rough, and it was nearly 100° F outside. It was probably a combination of my inexperience, my friend being out of practice, and plain old Murphy's Law, but this 24-year-old recent college graduate and a 63-year-old man with a bad ankle ended up lost in the middle of a very large national park with a five-mile-long ridgeline of 100-foot cliff blocking the direction we needed to go. To top that off, a thunderstorm, the likes of which I've never experienced firsthand, just happened to roll up on us.

By the time we realized we were spending the night in the woods, we were drenched to the bone as well as the gear we had. Then night fell. Out of all the gear I'd wished I'd taken, I couldn't have been happier that I had my E2D LED Defender^®. Its blinding light lit the way to the safest campsite we could find, helped us get a fire lit, and even aided in dispatching a curious varmint that came sniffing at my head while I tried to sleep on the wet ground. It never left my hand until the sun came up the next day.

I am 100% convinced that we might not have made it out of those woods safely had I not had my SureFire with me. Thanks for a die-hard reliable product I KNOW I can count on.

Adam L.
Madison, AL

It was my mother's birthday, and the whole family was on our way to a restaurant for a birthday celebration. In the car I had my AZ2 CombatLight^®, my U2 Ultra^®, and a new E1B Backup^®, which was a birthday gift for my mother. As we approached a junction, all hell broke loose—a motorcyclist got hit by a car, and the car just drove away. My mother and sister started shouting hysterically. I quieted them and then had my father drop my brother and me off, so we could attend to the motorcyclist.

Grabbing the AZ2-S and giving the U2 to my brother, we approached the motorcyclist. I tried to pull him to the side, out of the middle of the road, but his leg was pierced by metal slag of the bike. Concerned he would be hit by oncoming cars, my brother and I set out on either side of him to warn approaching cars that he was there: me with my AZ2-S's strobe flashing; him with the U2 on maximum output. Approaching drivers saw our signals slowed down a good 60 yards away.

After about 25 minutes, medical help finally arrived and took the man to the hospital. We went to the restaurant and, once there, I presented my mother with her gift, the E1B. My mom was touched and started to cry, saying, "Thank you, Angel. Thank you for the guardian angel!" Now she has her own SureFire "guardian angel" protecting her.

Thomas L.
Ipoh, Malaysia

I'm a bouncer at a bar, and I find myself using my E2D LED Defender® flashlight all the time. One night I was checking IDs, when a customer came inside and said there was a fight out in the parking lot. I ran outside to find one customer pummeling another. I separated them, grabbed the guy being pummeled, and started escorting him to the bar.

Just as I got to the door, the guy I left behind yells, "Hey, I'm not playing!" followed by the all-too-familiar sound of a pump shotgun being cocked. I grabbed my Defender and shined it directly into his eyes from about 25 feet. He immediately took one hand off his gun to shield his eyes, allowing me and the other guy to rush into the bar and call the police.

I'm pretty sure the moment that blinding beam bought me, saved my life. Thanks, SureFire.

Dustin B.
Kalispell, MT

The E2D Defender® is by far the best SureFire flashlight I've ever owned. It has been on my person every since the day I purchased it, and even when I sleep it is on my nightstand. Naturally, when the E2DL came out I had to get my hands on one. The 120 lumens its LED produces on high is great for doing all sorts of activities where more light is required. And the five lumens of output it generates on low is great for reading maps and general use around the home.

I like to jog at night, and I've always carried my E2D with me when I jog, but now I carry my E2DL. While jogging one night, I was attacked by a homeless person who seemed like he was on some sort of narcotic. He grabbed on to my reflective arm band as I ran past him and held on tightly. With my other hand, I reached into my shorts' pocket and pulled out my E2DL. I hit his hand with the E2DL's crenellated Strike Bezel®, and he released my arm band. Then I quickly shined the light in his eyes, disorienting him, and when he raised his hands to cover his eyes, I hit him in his forehead with the bezel, knocking him to the ground. A Good Samaritan spotted me in distress and helped me hold down the suspect until the police arrived. When the police arrived, they were curious about the odd shape on the suspect's forehead. I showed them the E2DL, and they instantly knew it was a SureFire—they even asked me when the LED E2D model came out.

Thank you, SureFire, for making quality products that I can depend on when my life is on the line.

Eric M.
Bronx, NY

Last year, when I was on a Boy Scouts campout, my buddy and I were walking along a trail at night to get to the restroom. Alongside us was a 50-foot drop-off into a creek below. I had my SureFire flashlight out, leading the way, attached to a SureFire paracord lanyard around my wrist, when a patch of leaves gave way and I fell off the drop-off. Luckily, my lanyard caught on to a tree sticking out the side of the drop-off and I was able to hang on. My buddy went and got a rope, tossed it to me, and I was able to climb up out of the drop-off, thanks to my durable SureFire lanyard saving me from a devastating fall.

That's how SureFire saved my life that night.

Gene M.
Waldport, OR

Every night I take a walk with my mom and my dog, and I always carry my SureFire LX2 with me. I usually just use it for lighting up any dog waste I might step on, or just to light up the sidewalk.

I thought maybe I blew almost $200 on a light that could do the same job as a cheap D-cell light; however, one night proved me wrong. My mom was walking in the middle of the road, and there was a sports car that didn't have its headlights turned on. The car sped up and almost crashed into my mom—until I lit up the car with 200 lumens of blinding light and yelled "STOP!"

That night, my LX2 literally saved my mom's life.

Timothy L.
Arcadia, CA

I'm an EMT, and I work in a small town in South Dakota. One night I was on call in the "city," which has a population of 1,500 people. At 1:30 a.m., after an uneventful day, I was in the ambulance station, preparing to go to sleep. The town was dead, and the only people moving around where the bar-goers, getting the last of their fill before the 2:00 a.m. closures.

Just as I was about to turn in, I heard a loud "thud." Different crashes make different sounds: rollovers make a crushing and tearing sound, while cars vs. buildings make a dull, hollow "thud." When I ran outside to determine the source of the noise, it was exactly as I'd feared. There was a car about a block away that had crashed into a concrete building. I ran to the accident scene and, using my SureFire 6P^® LED flashlight, peered inside the car. The 6P's bright beam illuminated a middle-aged male slumped over the wheel, dual air bag deployed, and the driver's side of the car was up against the building. All the doors were locked on the passenger side, and the front part of the car was totaled.

I ran to my car to get my EMS bag and tried to call dispatch for backup. Due to problems with the radio system—radio coverage had been spotty all day in our area—I was was only able to get through to dispatch once. For the time being, I was truly alone—with just me, my equipment bag, and my 6P. I shattered the back window with my window punch, but the window remained in place. So I used my 6P to bash in the window and remove any remaining pieces of glass. Backup arrived shortly thereafter, and the patient was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the hospital. He was later released, with no long-term injuries. The only battle scars on my 6P were two small scratches on the bezel.

Thanks, SureFire. I will trust no other flashlight company in my profession.

James D.
Sioux Falls, SD

I'm a paramedic and, at approximately 23:30 hours, I was dispatched to a vehicle accident. It was reported just down the street from where a concert was held earlier that evening, so I figured someone had driven off the road and into a ditch on their way home. The road is a very narrow, old, poorly paved one.

When we found the accident, we discovered a small truck about 100 feet down a steep embankment, perched in an oak tree. It was overcast that night so it was very dark. That is until I got my L1 LumaMax^® out. It goes everywhere I go and fits in my jumpsuit breast pocket. The L1 worked great. The driver and passenger, while not seriously injured, were trapped in the vehicle and required extensive extrication. (Think sardines pretending to be pretzels.) All during the extrication, I had my light on the truck so the fire department could see while carefully dismembering the truck. It was on high-output for most of an hour, without so much as a hiccup, and that was on an old battery. Only when they were nearly done did the FD decide to bring their gas-powered portable light station down. And even then I was able to provide more direct light precisely where it was needed to safely remove the patients from what used to be their truck.

Thank you, SureFire. You made light work of a difficult situation.

David L.
Sacramento, CA

I worked late one evening and was car-jacked in the parking lot. He forced me into the trunk of my car. I was scared and on the verge of panic. Luckily, my Surefire E1B Backup^® was in my purse. I turned my flashlight on with no plan other than to not be in the dark in the trunk of a moving car anymore.

With the light of my Backup, I noticed that the taillights could be removed. I couldn't pull the taillight through, so I bashed a hole through the assembly, using the bezel of my E1B. Then I shined my light's tight beam through the hole and at the windshields of any cars driving behind us. Several drivers noticed the light and dialed 911.

Moments later, the police boxed the car in at a traffic light, while I screamed from inside of the trunk. The police took the carjacker into custody. I was very grateful to them and just as grateful that I'd had my SureFire flashlight with me that night.

Angela M.
East Syracuse, NY

I work as a paramedic in a large city where the crime rate is fairly high. I never run a call without my Surefire LX2 LumaMax® on me. At approx 2:00 a.m. one Saturday morning, my squad was dispatched to a call for a psych patient who was off of his medication and becoming aggressive toward his wife. I arrived to find the 44-year-old schizophrenic patient who was hearing voices and yelling at his wife and the voices.

I called for the police to respond, for our safety, and was told they were so busy that it would take awhile. My partner and I attempted to calm the patient down, but that would only last so long before the voices took over. As time passed, the patient became more and more restless. I kept checking for the cops; 45 minutes had passed, and they still hadn't arrived. All of a sudden, the patient stated, "I know how I'm going to handle this," and I got the feeling that something wasn't right. He got up and quickly moved to the kitchen, which was completely dark due to the lack of lighting. I got up and followed him and could see that he had something in his hand.

I shined my LX2 on the counter and saw that he had a large kitchen knife in his hand and was making a motion as though he were going to stab himself. I yelled at him, he looked up at me, and lunged at me with the knife from about five feet away. I raised my LX2 and fired the light directly into his eyes, catching him off guard and startling him. To my amazement, he dropped the knife and backed himself into the fridge. His wife came running in to help calm him down, and this time it worked.

Ever since I purchased my first SureFire, friends and family have mocked me for spending that much on a flashlight. Now I tell them how my SureFire saved my life, which shuts them up quick. Thank you for making such a brilliant, dependable light that also serves as a backup self-defense tool-and for saving my life.

Steve L.
Waukesha, WI

The city braced itself as a category-four hurricane headed in our direction. We made preparations and stayed in our home while the storm raged just outside. Three hours into the storm we heard cries for help, so we opened our door to try to help. It was pitch black and only the occasional lightning bolt illuminated the sky, showing us large debris flying around and downed power lines.

It was too dangerous to go outside in the dark, so my father handed me the SureFire E1B Backup® and took out his E2D Defender® for himself. We headed outside, despite the efforts of my wife to keep us inside. Our lights cut through the darkness and showed us the true nature of the storm. We made our way to the neighbor's home, where a little girl had been cut severely by glass from a broken window. Thanks to our SureFire illumination tools, we were able to tend to the child and save her life.

Thank you, SureFire, for making such rugged flashlights.

Kevin S.
Houston, TX

It was 5:00 a.m., and I'd just gotten off work, after an exhausting 14-hour shift. I was on the freeway, heading north, when the next thing I knew, I'd drifted off the pavement. As I frantically tried to steer myself back onto the pavement, I over corrected, causing my Honda to flip twice and land upside down.

Pinned and unable to move, I'd lost all feeling in my legs. To make matters worse, my car was obstructed from view by high brush and its headlights no longer worked, so I was invisible from the freeway. I was able to reach the horn, but this proved unsuccessful—the battery had evidently come disconnected.

I screamed and yelling at passing cars for about 15 minutes before realizing that my U2 Ultra™ was in my pocket. So I managed to pull it from my pocket and began flashing an S.O.S. to a passing car. The car pulled over, and the driver called for an ambulance.

I suffered a broken hip, a dislodged femur, a fractured fibula and tibia, some broken ribs, and a few cuts and bruises. There's no doubt in my mind that my SureFire saved my life that dark morning—the driver who saved me told me he was blinded by the light and had to pull over to see what it was. Boy, am I glad he did.

Thank you, Surefire, for making such a great product!

Xuan N.
Garden Grove, CA

Doing some parachuting, in Northern Australia, I suddenly found myself in a life-or-death situation. I was hanging several meters by my chute over mangroves surrounded by crocodile-infested water. Luckily, I had my SureFire knife on me, and I used its sharp blade to carefully cut myself down and help me escape to dry, crocodile-free land.

If it hadn't been for my SureFire knife, I may well have hanged there indefinitely and possibly even died. Cheers, SureFire.

Kristian P.
Driver, Australia

I was driving through Washington DC on I-95 at about 8 p.m. Traffic was moving well, and I was making great time, until I came across a wreck on the highway. I scooted past it and saw two cars that had just been in an accident. Being an ever-prepared Good Samaritan, I pulled over, grabbed my roadside emergency bag from the back of the car (containing some screwdrivers, a first-aid kit, and, of course, my SureFire E2L Outdoorsman), and headed toward the accident.

I made my way to the second car, an SUV that had been flipped onto its side, trapping the older woman driver inside. I could see through the windshield that she had a head wound that was bleeding pretty badly, and she was starting to panic, so I grabbed the hardest object I could find—my SureFire Outdoorsman—and started trying to bash in the back windshield. After a few good blows, the windshield shattered. I coaxed the woman out, put on a pair of rubber gloves, and examined her head. The wound wasn't as bad as it looked, but I was concerned about the possibility of brain damage, so I did a quick pupil-dilation test, which requires a flashlight. I had my doubts that my SureFire would still work after using it as a smashing tool, but, much to my surprise, it lit right up and worked as if nothing had ever happened. The woman turned out to be okay and was rushed off in an ambulance. In the meantime, my SureFire continued to work at the scene, directing traffic until the local police arrived. I'm certain that woman would've remained trapped in that car until the cops arrived if it weren't for me and my SureFire.

Nicholas L.
New Rochelle, NY