• Drill of the Week: Routine Responses
• Drill Of The Week: Reading Smoke Basics
• Drill of the Week: Safety & Survival
• Drill of the Week: Roadway Safety
• Drill of the Week: Routine Fire Alarm Responses

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Carrying, positioning, and raising ground ladders sounds like a simple task, but being able to perform these functions in a short amount of time is critical on the fireground. Ground ladders not only provide us with a means to access the upper floors of a structure involved with fire, they also allow us to escape quickly from these upper floors if conditions become untenable. They also allow us to remove victims from upper floors without taking them through adverse conditions to exit the structure. We all must be proficient with carrying, positioning, and raising these ladders, no matter what type of company we belong to.

The objective of this week's drill is to safely place ground ladders into service using the appropriate ladder for intended target and the number of personnel who are normally assigned to that unit. The evolution consists of removing the appropriate ladder from the apparatus and properly positioning and raising the ladders to a target objective. The method used to raise a ladder shall be consistent with the method(s) normally used by the department with the number of personnel normally assigned to that unit. Instructors/officers should substitute their own equipment sizes and manpower profiles for this evolution. The evolution is provided as a guide to help you set up an initial attack operation evolution.

The complete evolution is located at FirefighterCloseCalls.com.

November 14, 2005