Through the years, firefighters have faced challenging situations and have come up with quick and safe solutions to assist in handling the problem while operating on the fireground. Many of us have had to use muscle and brawn to overcome many situations, although there may have been other means to accomplish the same goal. With the introduction of the tower ladder years ago, we’ve been able to accomplish many tasks faster and more efficiently. We all know how quickly we can get a supply line into the apparatus and begin to flow water vs. setting up an aerial ladder without a prepiped waterway and flow. This article discusses another technique of using a tower ladder to our advantage.
Many times, firefighters will encounter buildings with stepped-up roofs-buildings that may be one or two stories in the front and multiple stories in the rear. Newer multistory complexes set back from the street are being built that have large atriums or outdoor patios/decks a few levels up that hamper the reach of our aerial and tower ladder apparatus (photo 1). Many of these structures may even have commercial occupancies on the lower floors and apartments or condominiums on the upper floors, which could present a severe life hazard in the event of a fire. Also common on many of the newer buildings are outside balconies that offer the residents a place to relax and entertain. These balconies offer us an area to ladder to perform vent-enter-search operations and also offer the tenants a secondary means of egress in the event of a fire (photo 2). What are your plans to rescue and remove these individuals when you pull up on the scene and your apparatus can’t reach them?
In our initial training, many of us learned how to tie a utility rope with a large bowline knot and insert it into the portable ladder and then run it up and over the tip to make a “choker” around the ladder. Next, we placed a hose roller onto the parapet and had the rope run over the rollers, and we used a couple of firefighters to hoist the ladder to the top of the roof. In another evolution, you may have placed two ladders against the same wall of a building about 10 feet apart; then, with a firefighter on each ladder, you pushed a portable up to the roof. When you are performing this up an extension ladder, if you use the “fly-out” principle, you will have to maneuver the ladder over the butt of the fly section when you reach its position. This can be a difficult transition in the evolution and requires good balance and working in unison with the other firefighter on the opposite ladder. Both evolutions require strength and coordination; plus, they can put a physical strain on a firefighter’s endurance. However, we must know the evolutions and train in them for those situations that call for their use (photo 3).
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