OK, This was forwarded to me at work and though I am on a Ladder Company, I am not assigned to nor do we have a Tower Ladder. So with that said, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the following fire ground photographs.
The guys on my company did immediately notice that the roof ladder appears to be upside down and the hooks are on the bottom of the ladder as well.
Anyone know the story behind this photo? While there are bound to be opinions about this operation ... it is hard to know exactly what is going on. If anyone is familiar with this particular incident please post the details.
Wow not sure I would call this safe nor would I try it. I would Think you could have set the platform on the roof edge and picked the guy off that way. Also, just and observation why not breathing app. WTF
Wow! The fire service has invented some unique ways of doing things but this is not something to be endorsed. What was the purpose of this? 2 pictures say alot and I would be curious as to the opinion of the FF's who performed this acrobatic show.
It looks like the close proximity of the electrical service lateral prevents the tower from lowering the bucket any further. Even still, there are safer ways to access a roof. Extension ladder & roof ladder? I agree with Tim, where's the SCBA? Would be nice to get the whole story though.
?? This is about as unsafe an act as I've scene in 47 year in the service. Some companys are using this proceedure when faced with a parapet wall. Basket should have been lowered close to the peak, an a roof ladder hooked over the peak of the roof, if he was attempting ventilation.
Our just delivered KME Tower actually has hooks on the front side of the Basket to extend a roof ladder off of.........However this manuver is off the side of the bucket.........and I just can't imagine anyone doing this..........
How can this happen? If this is a paid dept., someone needs to get fired. If a volunteer, someone needs to be banned from the dept. This is beyound stupid! And the sad part is , the yo-yo that dreamed this up thinks they did a good job.
Electrical wires shown in the picture are on opposite side of roof and at the low end so it would seem that a good opperator should have been able to place the basket closer to the peake to safely allow the FF to get in the basket.
Looks like all that was needed was to lower the boom about 6- 8ft. Even if he could only get within 2 ft it would be safer than this.
I am guessing he could not place the platform in a closer proximity to the roof due to wires or objects we could not see.
The service line does not appear to be prohibiting the platform from making an unsupported set at the roof and that still doesn’t explain the reason why the person is on the roof is alone and appearing to be free from the protection of an SCBA?
The roof ladder access in that scenario seems to be a very poor choice instead of simply accessing with platform in a much safer manner but I aint there to have all that truck co. fun.
Something that might not be thought of, suppose he is alone in the platform basket as there appears to be nobody else up there with him?
This would have him setting the approach / positioning for the platform basket by himself, rigging the roof ladder into the mechanical locks, making the descent, whatever task he was assigned on the roof and the ascent back to the platform then a disconnect of roof ladder to place back in holder before returning the rescue basket back to the bed of apparatus.
One person skilled in this could obviously perform this and it is in fact appearing to being shown but why would you eliminate the safety of doing it correctly?
Points to ponder for sure and this little “What happened and what if scenario” really makes me miss working and teaching from a truck co. perspective.
Permalink Reply by FETC on August 13, 2009 at 4:20pm
SW.
As I mentioned before, we don't run a T/L so I am gathering from your response there are mechanical locks to "lock-in" the roof ladder into that position? If so, I then understand the T/L is designed to operate like this.
Any concern as to positioning the T/L directly above the vent, not to mention the roof ladder directly in front of a vented attic window?