Photo by Al Trojanowicz
THE DANGERS OF CLIMBING AN AERIAL LADDER
STRATEGY & TACTICS
THE FIREFIGHTER wheels the ladder apparatus around the corner and heads it into the fire block. It is still dark. The streetlights are barely visible through the smoke banking down between the three-story, brick row houses that line the thoroughfare.
From a distance, the two firefighters in the apparatus can see flames blowing out of a pair of double windows on the first floor of the fire building. As they get closer, they notice smoke pushing out around a second-floor window frame and from an open window on the third floor. It is also drifting downward from the decorative cornice at the roof level.
An uncharged hoseline, connected to a pumper, leads up the stairs and into the front door. The chief stands in the middle of the street, waving on the ladder truck and pointing to the upper floor of the fire building.
Hie chauffeur brings the apparatus to a halt and looks up at the burning building. A young woman’s head and right arm hang out of a third-floor window. She waves frantically. Her head hangs below the window sill to escape the smoke that is pouring out above her. The wind momentarily changes direction and she is no longer visible. Smoke now obscures the entire front of the building.
As the chauffeur slowly moves the rig into position for the rescue, the chief runs over to the cab and shouts, “Did you see that woman at the window?!” The chauffeur nods his head in an exaggerated manner as he concentrates on lining up the aerial ladder turntable with the window.
Preliminary controls and stabilizing systems are set for safety. Up at the turntable, the chauffeur raises the aerial ladder from its bed, rotating it in toward the building. The aerial sections slide up into the smoke toward the window where the woman was last seen. It seems as though they take forever to get there. The wind changes direction again-the woman is still at the window.
The second firefighter, wearing a ladder belt, is poised at the turntable for the climb. The aerial is lowered in toward the building just below the window, and the lever to lock the rung is applied. The firefighter springs up the ladder.
Down below, firefighters are running into the fire building. Some are dragging a second hoseline. The first hoseline suddenly jumps like a snake as it is pressurized with water. The sirens of incoming units scream in the distance. The sound of steel striking steel and wood echo through the street as firefighters force entry into apartments.
Smoke blows into the face of the firefighter who’s now halfway up the aerial. He looks up. The woman has already started climbing out of the window onto the ladder. “Stay there! Don’t climb out!” the firefighter shouts He climbs faster, looking into the smokeblackened second-floor windows as he goes. He sees an orange glow through a cracked window pane. The fire has spread to the second floor.
He reaches the woman at the tip of the swaying aerial ladder. Suddenly, fire explodes out of the window directly below them. Flames rise up and engulf the tip of the aerial. The firefighter quickly pushes the woman back into the window and dives inside after her to avoid the flames.
They scramble to their feet, and the firefighter grabs the woman by her shoulders. She is shaking violently and her eyes are glazed.
“Where’s the door to the stairs?” he asks. She points. They crouch down below the smoke and make their way to the rear of the apartment. Flame crackles on the other side of the door. He opens it slowly. Smoke and heat pour into the apartment, and he quickly slams the door shut.
“Is there a rear fire escape?” he asks. The woman leads him across the room. He flings the curtains out of the way, opens the window, and peers down into the yard. Flames leap out of a lower window, engulfing the fire escape. There is no fire escape ladder to the roof.
The firefighter closes the window, and they move back to the front room. DANGERS OF CLIMBING AN AERIAL
Through the window they see flames rising through the rungs of the aerial. Terror overcomes the woman. She turns to the firefighter with horror in her eyes. “We are going to die! We’re trapped!”
Just then, a blast of water strikes the outside wall of the building and splashes through the open window, onto their faces. The members below have put a deck pipe into operation in an attempt to drive the flames back into the second floor. The firefighter feels the vibrations of the stream as it hits the ceiling below. He looks out of the window to the street. The chief is signaling frantically for him to climb down. He notices that the deck pipe is being supplied by a pumper’s booster tank, not a hydrant- they have about two minutes to get out of the window and down the aerial ladder before the booster tank runs out of water and the flames start to blow out of the window again.
Wasting no motion, the firefighter moves to the tip of the swaying aerial. The woman follows him to the window. He instructs her to sit on the sill, facing outward with her legs hanging over the ladder, then to roll over onto her stomach. He directs her right foot onto the second rung of the ladder. Once she feels the stability of the ladder, now pressed against the building, she transfers her weight from the window sill to the ladder rung. The firefighter leans over the woman and places her left hand on the aerial railing-just as the deck pipe runs out of water. Smoke and heat rush out of the window below and engulfs them both.
“Help, I’m blinded! I can’t breathe! I’m going back inside!” the woman cries.
“No!” the firefighter commands. “Just step down! Three rungs and you’ll be out of the smoke! Don’t stop now!”
They move slowly down the aerial. The firefighter grips the side rails and maintains body contact with the woman, offering instructions and encouragement through the smoke. “That’s it. Now take your right foot and place it on the next lower rung. Great!” A blast of flame surges up out of the window below, just above the woman’s head. “Hurry-one more step!” the firefighter urges. “That’s it!”
They clear the smoke just as another ball of fire rises up the side of the building to engulf the tip of the aerial. The woman stops. “I’m afraid,” she says. “We’re too high up!” The firefighter is firm, yet calm. “Don’t look down. Look at the rungs directly in front of your face. I will guide your feet.”
Out of danger now, they climb slowly down the rest of the way, rung by rung. The firefighter guides the woman to the edge of the turntable deck, then carefully down the steps to the running board, and finally to the street.
The firefighter looks back up at the building. Flames are now blowing out of the third-floor window.
QUESTION 1: Which of the following statements is incorrect?
- Removal of a fire victim by an aerial ladder should not be attempted if a safe interior stairway or fire escape is available.
- In some instances, it may be a safer practice for a firefighter, after ascending an aerial ladder, to enter a room where a victim is trapped and stay with that person until the fire is extinguished, instead of descending the ladder with the person.
- Aerial ladders should be used as little as possible for aerial placement training, since it is an expensive piece of equipment that can be damaged needlessly.
- The tip of an aerial ladder should be placed several inches out from the window sill. The weight of the climbing firefighter and victim will cause the ladder to rest against the building.
QUESTION 2: Which of the following statements is incorrect?
- The aerial ladder victim-removal operation is not completed until the aided person is off the aerial and standing on the turntable of the apparatus.
- A properly raised aerial ladder is more stable than a portable ground ladder.
- The tip of an aerial ladder should be placed slightly below the window sill.
- When assisting a person down an aerial ladder, it is best to talk to him, giving specific instructions and encouragement.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 1: Choice C is an incorrect statement. The aerial ladder should be used frequently for training in aerial ladder placement.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 2: Choice A is an incorrect statement. The aerial ladder victim-removal operation is not completed until the aided person is standing on the street and under the supervision of medical personnel.
Most articles written about aerial ladders are from the point of view of the chauffeur or operator, the firefighter who positions, secures, and raises the aerial ladder at the fire. This one is different: It is from the perspective of the firefighter who has to climb the aerial but has no hand in its positioning, securing, or raising.
At many fires, the aerial has already been raised. It may have been positioned at the window or roof perfectly; it may also have been raised at a difficult angle due to parked cars or overhead wires. Regardless of how it is positioned, when ordered to climb an aerial to accomplish a firefighting tactic, you must climb it.
Firefighters who climb ladders must realize that falls are a leading cause of fireground death and injury. True, most injuries caused by falling happen when firefighters are operating at ground level; however, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 40 percent of on-thejob firefighter falls are from elevations. These are the deadly, disabling falls.
Falls from portable ladders happen most often when the ladder moves or slips while the firefighter is on it. Falls from aerial ladders are different. They are often prompted by some event that causes the firefighter to lose his grip. Explosions, burning cornice collapse, falling shingles, people jumping from windows, and dropped tools can all cause a firefighter to lose his grip and fall from an aerial ladder.
LADDER BELTS
The firefighter who climbs an aerial ladder should wear a belt around his waist. He may or may not use it; however, it should always be available if needed. It should be used on an aerial ladder when performing operations that require the use of both hands, ladder angle permitting. (The ladder belt can be difficult to use when the aerial is positioned at a low angle-for that reason alone, ladder belts should be redesigned specifically for aerial use to provide greater flexibility of motion at any angle.)
Some firefighting duties that require use of both hands are: stretching surplus hose to an upper floor; operating a ladder pipe; using a pike pole to open up a smoldering cornice; assisting a person out of a window. A leg lock should not be used on a aerial as a substitute for a ladder belt. On some aerial ladder rungs, use of a leg lock is not even possible.
CLIMBING TECHNIQUE
There is no one correct technique for climbing an aerial ladder. However, a continuous grip on some part of the aerial must be maintained. Feet must be positioned carefully on the rungs. The climb should be accomplished slowly, with leg muscles providing the thrust for upward progress. Rungs should not be skipped.
When the aerial is raised at a steep angle, gripping the rungs is often more comfortable. Gripping the rails is usually more comfortable for low-angle aerial placement. The hand holding a tool that might be carried up the ladder should be slid under or outside the railing, thereby holding the firefighter in toward the ladder.
There is always a danger of falling when descending an aerial ladder. Firefighters should always face the rungs- face into the building-when climbing down, even when the aerial is positioned at a low angle. That way, if he misses a rung, loses his balance, and trips, he will fall into the ladder and have a better chance of regaining handhold and footing. Facing away from the aerial in descent will, if a rung is missed, propel the firefighter outward, and his chances of regaining a grip on the aerial will be small.
DANGERS OF CLIMBING AN AERIAL
Firefighters operating with self-contained breathing equipment and carrying tools are more likely to fall from aerial ladders. The thirty-pound cylinder strapped to a firefighter’s back can cause an error in balance. That extra weight changes the vertical equilibrium of the body. A heavy tool, such as a power saw, may have the same effect. In addition, the effort used to hold on to it may interfere with the firefighter’s concentration.
Tools should be attached to slings or straps whenever possible, allowing them to be carried over the shoulder. Both hands, then, will be free to grip the aerial. Many aerial ladders are designed to hold an axe or pike pole in a bracket attached to the tip of the aerial, leaving the firefighter’s hands free for the climb up to use them.
CLIMBING WHILE RAISING
There’s plenty of photographic testimony-published and unpublished-to this dangerous practice. We’ve seen pictures of firefighters grimacing in pain because their feet and ankles were crushed between ladder rungs that moved while they were on the aerial ladder.
Firefighters should never be on an aerial ladder while it is being raised, rotated, or extended. The aerial must be in position before climbing it. That means making sure that the ladder locks are set, too.
If a firefighter climbs the aerial ladder while it is being raised or moved to get to a known victim more quickly and gets his foot caught between moving ladder rungs, the rescue attempt will have to be aborted and probably never accomplished. The rescue scene will have a firefighter caught on the ladder, screaming in pain; the aerial hanging in midair; and the victim trapped at the window. Unless another aerial ladder at the scene can quickly be moved into position, the trapped victim will be forced to jump.
FROM AERIAL TO WINDOW
A hazardous moment during an aerial ladder climb is when the firefighter moves from the tip of the raised aerial into a window that’s high off the ground.
He should first place any tools he is carrying inside of die window opening. With both free hands, he should then grab onto the sides of the window or the sill and test its stability. If it does not move, the firefighter maintains this grip and pulls himself up through the window. He should not grab onto any part of a burned or charred window frame, which could collapse in his hand.
When climbing from the building to the aerial after the operation has ended, the tools should be placed near the window where they can be easily reached. While holding onto some secure part of the window or building, the firefighter climbs onto the ladder, maintaining a grip until he feels his weight being supported by the aerial. When balanced and fully supported by the ladder, he picks up the tools, secures them into a sling or strap if available, and climbs down the ladder-maintaining a grip at all times.
DANGERS OF SHAFTWAY WINDOW OPENINGS
In commercial buildings, some windows facing on the street front open up into elevator hoistways. There is no floor inside these windows, only a fiftyor sixty-foot drop down an elevator shaftway. Firefighters have climbed from aerial ladders into shaftway windows and fallen to their deaths. Four windows may be placed in a row across the width of a storage building. Three may give access to the floor, but one may open up into an elevator shaft.
There is required by law, in some communities, a warning sign on all shaftway windows. However, these signs, if wooden, burn away when flames explode out the windows at a multiple-alarm fire, or may be obscured by clouds of smoke, or may simply be unreadable at night.
Always be mindful of this very common hazard in commercial occupancies. Tools can come in handy at such operations. Placing them inside a window before moving from the aerial to the building, besides freeing both hands, tells you if there is a floor deck or not: if you don’t hear or feel the tools strike the floor, you may be looking at a very long drop down an elevator hoistway.
AERIAL TO FLAT ROOF
When an aerial ladder is placed several feet higher than a roof parapet, the firefighter charged with rescue, vertical ventilation, or other tactic should stop at the parapet wall and drop his tools onto the roof. He then continues to climb several more rungs until he can easily step over the parapet wall. Always grip the ladder when moving to the roof.
If the tip of the aerial ladder is placed below the parapet or roof, the firefighter will have to grip the parapet or roof cornice during the move from aerial to building. This is more dangerous. Masonry parapet walls are often deteriorated and weakened by the elements. Wood cornices are often rotted and decayed. The firefighter must test the stability of the parapet before climbing to the roof.
ASSISTING A PERSON FROM A WINDOW DOWN AN AERIAL
Assisting a trapped person from a window of a burning building to the tip of an aerial ladder is one of the most dangerous and difficult ladder operations a firefighter may ever be required to perform during his career. It may have to be done in the dark of night, during a rain or snow storm, and at great heights. It may have to be accomplished quickly, before the smoke-filled room explodes into flames. During this act, the firefighter may be required to maintain his balance while holding onto the victim, who quite possibly has never climbed a ladder, and most definitely is scared and excited.
However, sometimes this dangerous feat need not be done at all. As always, the firefighter must size up the situation before acting. The decision to take a person down an aerial may not be automatic.
The firefighter must first determine if the danger from the smoke and fire are greater than the danger of the climb down the aerial. If the victim is hanging out of the window and grasping desperately at the sill, or is standing on a ledge of the building next to a flaming window, there is only one decision to be made. But if the person is trapped several floors above a fire, or there is only a light smoke condition in the room, the victim need not be exposed to the danger of the aerial ladder descent.
The firefighter may be able to climb into the window and calm the person down; shut the door to the room, stopping the smoke from entering; communicate the situation to his officer by portable radio and stay with the victim at the window until the fire below has been extinguished.
There are priorities that dictate how a victim should be removed from a burning building. These priorities are based on safety-victims must be removed from burning buildings in the safest way possible. The escape-route priorities, in order, for victim removal during a fire are: smoke-proof tower, interior enclosed stairway, safe fire escape, aerial platform, and aerial ladder. A person should be taken down an aerial only if none of the above avenues of escape are available for use.
When a firefighter makes a decision to remove a person from a burning building down an aerial ladder, the following safety procedures should be considered:
DANGERS OF CLIMBING AN AERIAL
- The firefighter should be out on the aerial.
- The person should be instructed on how to climb out of the window.
- While the person is holding onto the window sill, his feet should be guided and placed on the rungs of the aerial ladder.
- The victim should then be encouraged to transfer his body weight onto the aerial, then to move one hand from the window sill onto the rail, then the other.
- If the fire is reaching out of the window during rescue, very little instruction will have to be given. The person will automatically move from the window sill to the ladder. However, if the victim freezes on the ladder, he should be told that he must not look down, but rather look up or concentrate on the rungs in front, using a foot to feel for each rung below him. If necessary, the firefighter could guide and even place the victim’s feet on each rung at the beginning of the climb down the ladder.
Firefighters who have successfully guided persons down aerial ladders report that they continuously talk to the victim during the descent. They give encouragement and congratulate them on their progress. Once the person is moving down each rung without much hesitation, the firefighter can maintain body contact with the victim by enveloping the person with his arms while holding onto the railings. This can give a sense of security on the aerial. Before each aerial section is approached, the firefighter should warn the person that the rung spacing will change. The person’s foot may have to be guided to these rungs.
- Victim removal down an aerial ladder is not completed until the person is off the apparatus and onto street level, and in the care of medical personnel. People have been guided down a 75or 100-foot aerial ladder, only to be left on the turntable to faint and fall eight to ten feet to the ground. Individuals taken down an aerial ladder should be assisted off the apparatus. They must not be allowed to wander off in a state of shock.
TURNTABLE HAZARDS
There are certain hazards and dangers that the firefighter must consider when he nears the turntable platform after climbing down a fully extended aerial ladder. He will be exhausted after performing search and rescue, ventilation, or extinguishment tactics and may tend to become careless. The urge to skip bottom rungs of the aerial is great.
On some metal aerial ladders, the distance between the last two rungs varies. Also, the shape of the last rung is different. There is a large metal drum with a greased cable that must be stepped over before reaching the turntable platform. Even if you safely reach the platform, climbing backward down a fully extended aerial ladder, with your head down while concentrating on the rungs, can cause problems in balance. One step backward over the circular edge of the turntable could result in serious injury. Furthermore, just the seemingly simple act of climbing from turntable to street can be dangerous for those not assigned to a ladder unit-the steps and metal foothold are sometimes not recognizable to them. Firefighters have been injured by stepping on a raised compartment door. Don’t take the short climb from turntable to street for granted -it may not be as simple as it seems.
Climbing an aerial ladder is a dangerous task that requires skill, agility, knowledge, and discipline. One of the major responsibilities of a trained, qualified chauffeur assigned to position an aerial ladder is to ensure that all safety devices are set in place before anyone climbs it. When all is in position, the climbing firefighter must do so slowly and carefully.
Safety must always take priority over speed. Dependability, not speed, is the principle on which effective, safe firefighting is based.
