THE EVOLUTION of the aerial platform or tower ladder has revolutionized the fire service over the course of its existence. The machine is used for so much more than just providing an elevated master stream. Using the rig to its full potential will make our firefighting and rescue efforts flow more smoothly if we properly train on those evolutions before they happen. Whether you call the working platform a bucket or a basket, it can do more than squirt water and remove victims from perilous conditions during a fire.
Transport Device
Transporting victims from a fire to a safe location doesn’t always have to mean to the ground. If you must remove numerous people from a balcony, fire escape, or various floors, you might not have time to bring them all the way to the ground. Size up the building and area in which you’re working. You might have to remove them to another wing of the building, a lower building’s roof, a different fire escape, or a balcony below the fire area. If you have time to rebed the boom into the cradle, you must assist victims out of the bucket and to the ground. No removal is complete until the victim is safely on the ground. In addition, it may be difficult for barefoot, injured, or elderly people to navigate the area out of the bucket and down a ladder or stairs to the ground. So, make sure help is there to assist in that process.
Transporting injured victims from construction accidents, elevated roadways, or train tracks is another opportunity to put the rig into service. If you’re operating at roadways or train tracks, ensure traffic has been stopped before placing the bucket over the safety railing or stepping out of the bucket to avoid being struck by any moving traffic.
If you have carrying brackets on your bucket for a Stokes basket, that’s great. However, be prepared to have a secondary means of transporting the basket. What if you must accept the basket from one direction and the brackets are mounted on the opposite side of the bucket? Will you be able to lift and slide a large victim over the railings and into the brackets? Most likely not, due to the physical effort it might take and the makeup of the bucket and brackets.
Front brackets are good, too, but if the victim is injured and requires medical treatment on the ride down, will it be better to quickly secure the basket across the top railings with personnel on both sides of the basket providing treatment?
Some buckets provide lower swing-out brackets. The victim is at foot level and may be difficult to reach, especially if you’re performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. So, have a game plan prior to facing these situations on the streets.
An item you might not think about transporting is portable ladders. Often, you may encounter a building with a stepped-up roof farther to the rear or side of the structure that may need to be ventilated. Pulling up ladders with a rope or pushing them up across another ladder or two is difficult and time consuming. If you know the bucket’s physical makeup, you can use it in this instance. Opening the bucket doors and sliding some portable ladders through the opening is easy to do. Plus, you may be able to put a few ladders in the space. Units performed this operation at a building under construction so firefighters didn’t have to climb up homemade 2- x 4-inch ladders at one scene.
The Stokes basket brackets can offer yet another avenue of transport if they’re mounted on the front of the bucket. During training evolutions, we’ve had good luck transporting them on lower swing-out and higher brackets. Side brackets can cause some issues and aren’t as reliable, so you’ll need to try it on the rig before you put it into practice. Some buckets might not have side doors or brackets, but a larger front lip might allow you to secure the ladder there for transport.
When you perform these tactics, watch for overhead obstructions such as power lines and tree branches. Sometimes all it might require is sliding the ladders through the bucket doors to one side during transport to avoid the obstruction. When the ladders are attached to the brackets, that might be difficult to do, due to the rungs preventing them from sliding.
Can the ladder be secured in a vertical position and be transported off the master stream device? If your rig has electrically powered devices, this method is not recommended so as not to damage the wiring.
Saws are an integral piece of machinery for truck companies and their tactical operations. Often, we’ll use them for forcible entry and roof ventilation tactics. The downside is when they are in the bucket on the floor for transport, they take up valuable floor space and become a tripping hazard while we’re trying to operate. Many firefighters don’t bring them up because of these issues. Yes, you might be able to use smaller battery-operated saws on security bars or scissor or child gates in windows, but they still take up floor space.
Many tower ladder companies have created homemade carrying straps, which allow personnel to “drape” the saw over the side railings of the bucket to allow more space in the bucket while still having the saws nearby. Some companies have added chain saw-carrying scabbards to safely carry the saw on the outside of the bucket. Apparatus manufacturers also offer various types of saw-carrying brackets, so investigate your options.
Transporting civilians and equipment may be two totally different operations we perform at fire and emergency scenes. When you’re operating a tower ladder, you better be trained and prepared to do both.
MICHAEL N. CIAMPO is a 38-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously, he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the lead instructor for the FDIC International Truck Essentials H.O.T. program. He wrote the Ladders and Ventilation chapters for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II (Fire Engineering, 2009) and the Bread and Butter Portable Ladders DVD and is featured in “Training Minutes” truck company videos.
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