By Michael N. Ciampo
Arriving as the second-due truck at a 21⁄2-story wood-frame dwelling with heavy fire showing from the first floor, we saw numerous people in the second-floor windows waiting to be removed. Their primary means of escape—the open interior stairs—was blocked by fire and smoke, telling us we would have to remove them with portable ladders.
As we pulled off our 24-foot extension ladder, we made sure that we faced the building as we slid the ladder out of the ladder rack on the rear of the apparatus ("body to the building"). This gave us a constant view of the smoke conditions; the fire's extension; and the location, number, and mental state of the victims.
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