HAZ-MAT LADDER AIDS ACCESS AND IMPROVES SAFETY
INNOVATIONS: HOMEGROWN
Your dispatcher reports a leak of a hazardous material in the rear of a freight semitractor-trailer. After your arrival, size-up, gear selection, and so on, your hazardous-materials team is ready to enter the rear of the truck. But how? Use an attic ladder? A roof ladder? Or worse yet, just climb in? None of these options work very well. The attic ladder is lightweight, but its narrow rungs make climbing hazardous for a firefighter in an encapsulating suit. The roof ladder is tin) tall, awkward, and heavy, and climbing in is just plain dangerous.
Our department has faced this situation several times and has devised the following solution: half of a commercial aluminum extension laddermodified.
The ladder (donated by a department member) provides a safe, lightweight means for entering the rear of a semitrailer. The ladder can be used with roll-up or swing-type doors (photos 1 and 2) and works equally well on a low boy-type trailer or a facility loading dock (photos 3 and 4).
LADDER CONSTRUCTION
We adapted the ladder in the following manner:
- Installed ladder feet on the bottom of the ladder. The feet can be modified for use on pavement and/or dirt and gravel (photo 5) and arcavailable at a local supply center.
- Removed the top rounded ends of the ladder (for later use).
- Cut the ladder to provide a “hand-hold” on the right side. Cut the rungs flush on the inside so as not to weaken the ladder. Cut the right side to 90 inches in length and reinstalled one of the top rounded ends.
- Cut the left side to 64 inches in length and reinstalled the other rounded top end.
- With Vi-inch-thick aluminum, we made side arms to support the ladder (photo 6).
- Using a 3x 3-inch aluminum angle, we made movable feet for the side arms.
- Drilled and bolted the side arms to the ladder above the top rung.
- Drilled and installed the angled feet on the side arms.
- Drilled a 3/8-inch hole in each side of the side arms and installed a piece of Vs-inch all-thread rod and a piece of 1/2-inch electrical conduit between the side arms for strength (photo 7).
- Fainted the top portion of both sides of the ladder yellow for better visibility and safety.
This lightweight ladder (19 pounds) is easy to make, is economical, and can be carried on hazardousmaterials units without taking up a lot of space.
Photos by lynn Hancock.
