By Bill Adams
I can’t remember where I saw it, but there’s a photo floating around someplace showing a roof ladder going through a cellar window. At morning coffee at the firehouse, I mentioned using ladders at cellar fires. It was a mistake. One Raisin Squad member said, “There’s a difference between cellars and basements. Cellars aren’t necessarily full rooms. Look it up!” I asked if he ever heard of a “basement” nozzle or a Bresnan “basement” pipe or a wine “basement.” He had no sense of humor.
Roof ladders, about 19-inches wide, take up a good portion of cellar windows. Its doubtful some firefighters would fit through it especially wearing an air pack. In 50 some-odd years as a volunteer, I recalled once in the 1960s using ladders to access a cellar. During overhaul after a very nasty cellar fire, we used two collapsible ladders for access because the stairs burned out and there wasn’t an outside stairwell. (They’re sometimes called attic, folding and finger-pinching ladders.)
Two were used side-by-side because collapsible ladders are only about a foot wide and its easier climbing in full turnout gear. One geezer popped off: Get wider ladders or smaller firemen.
I mentioned today they can use short combination A-frame/single ladders or combination step/extension ladders. Depending on the manufacturer and model, they’re around 19-inches to 23-inches wide. Another white hair: “You just want to sell more ladders.” I said you know I’m retired. “It don’t matter – you’d sell ’em if you could.”
I advocate carrying 5-foot or 6-foot roof ladders with hooks to access first floor windows and to assist in scaling outdoor fences. I said the same ladder could be used for access/egress from a cellar by taking out the window and hanging the ladder on the inside with the hooks extending over the outside wall. Another geezer: “Everyone knows cinder blocks measure 16 x 8 x 8-inches. The hooks ain’t gonna fit over them. Use your head for something besides a hat rack.”
During another morning coffee, I asked what they thought about using a roof ladder as an emergency fire escape. They were primed: “What the hell are you talking about now?” I said use it like a pompier ladder. Their answers were predictable: “You forget your meds again this morning? Selling more ladders today? Ain’t a pompier a French wine? Do you mean a scaling ladder? They went by the wayside when they started putting air in the tires.” I should’ve stayed home.
If you’ve never seen a single-beam pompier ladder – look it up online. If you’ve never climbed one – don’t. If you get nervous and jerky and start rocking side-to-side, you’ll end up swinging in the breeze like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. And if you’re terrified of heights, look for heavy-duty Depends before climbing. There are two-beam versions called scaling ladders – once popular in Europe but I never saw one up close.
Back to using a “regular” roof ladder as a Pompier ladder or an emergency fire escape. Imagine catching a job with entrapment on an upper floor. Because of a building’s set back, parked cars, and wires, etc., an aerial can’t be used and the longest extension ladder carried will not reach. (Many ladder trucks only carry a minimum complement of ground ladders.)
Is it feasible to “slide” a roof ladder with opened hooks up the exterior wall and hook it on a window sill? Depending on the manufacturer, a 12-foot roof ladder weighs around 30 to 40 pounds. If there’re hooks on both ends, they might keep the ladder away from the exterior wall making it easier to climb. Its best to check with the ground ladder manufacturers before trying it.
The National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 1931 Standard for Manufacturer’s Design of Fire Department Ground Ladders, Chapter 4 Ladder Design shows the testing procedures and duty ratings for both pompier ladders and roof ladders and their hooks. It also shows a diagram of a pompier ladder. I don’t know if pompiers are still made or used.
Only The Shadow Knows!
A former friend emailed this picture asking me what I thought about it. I replied, “Send me the real one. This one doesn’t show a darn thing. He said it was the real one. I retorted: “Its only half the damn car and some blacktop.” He fired back: “Just look at it old-timer.” I couldn’t even tell what make the car was so I took it to morning coffee thinking the Squad could help figure it out. Visualize a couple white hairs sitting at the table trying to figure out what the heck they’re looking at. One geezer said it looked like a monster with a bad haircut and two squinting eyes glaring at you. One of the young guys wandered in the kitchen, looked at the picture, laughed, and called me an unprintable name. He said I was on the purchasing committee when the last one was bought. Huh? Looking at the top of the shadow from each side is the outline of a west coast mirror, a 6-inch spotlight, a marker light, a beacon ray, an air horn and three marker lights. It’s a 1980’s era American La France custom cab. The driver (Chris McLoone) took the photo when stopped at a traffic light. He sent it to me.
A Mack Raisin
Harvey Eckart is an out-of-town raisin, a former volunteer, a seasoned citizen (he’s 90 this month!), author and a Mack fire truck aficionado. A couple days after saying I was considering writing some articles titled What’s Under the Paint? he sends a Maxim delivery photo of a tractor-drawn aerial pulled by – naturally – an older B-Model Mack tractor. Maxim built the aerial and trailer and Mack finished it off. He laughed: “Put anything you want under the paint, including compartments – there’s room!”
Once, when telling tall tales to each other, I said at least one manufacturer has reintroduced the concept of what I call “fully enclosed” pumpers. I mentioned the manufacturer that supplied a large Midwest city with many of them and said the concept has merit today.
Two days later I get a “be careful” email from Harvey with a factory delivery photograph: “This 1935 Mack Type 19 is historically significant as the first enclosed pumper in America. It was delivered to Charlotte (NC) – not out Midwest. It had a 750-gpm pump, 100-gallon tank and carried 1,000 feet of 2½-inch hose.” Message received.
