FireNuggets, Inc
November 2016
firefighters. Because it is a taller, heavier, and more cumbersome
ground ladder it is my opinion that we should try our hardest to
eliminate any unnecessary movements. This is especially true on less
than ideal ground conditions and on windy days. The firefighter at
the butt end of the ladder should also do their part by acting as a
counterweight and assist the firefighter at the tip with raising the
heavier variety of ground ladders. The two most utilized manners of
raising these ground ladders is the flat raise and the beam raise. In
regards to the flat raise, we can be most efficient with our
movements and prevent the unnecessary spinning of the ladder by
raising it in the fly out position. By placing the firefighter at the butt
end of the ladder on the bottom rung, we have added a
counterweight to assist the firefighter at the tip of the ladder with
raising it into the vertical position. When utilizing the beam raise
method the firefighter at the butt end of the ladder can act as
counterweight by placing their boot against the outside beam and
pulling back on the beam nearest to themselves. Once again, by
consciously raising the ladder in the fly out position we can
minimize many unnecessary and, therefore, less efficient
movements. But these are simply methods of deploying our ground
ladders and that is just one cog in the machine of a systematic
approach. Once again, we need to be capable of moving from the
truck to the building with the proper ladder, and the proper
assortment of tools to meet our objective. If we were to utilize the
same objective that we used with our scenario involving a one
firefighter deployment method, vertical ventilation, and create a
systematic approach that allowed for two firefighters to carry a 35’
extension ladder and the same task package that was previously
mentioned: a ground ladder, two axes, two drop bags, and two
chainsaws on Truck 11 it would look like this. One firefighter pulls
the 35’ extension ladder approximately 10’ out of the bed and adds
the two hooks in the same fashion that was previously mentioned,
while the other firefighter starts two chain saws. After starting both
chainsaws, the saw firefighter passes one saw off to the hook
firefighter and then goes to the tip of the ladder. Both firefighters
are now able to carry the 35’ extension ladder and a full
complement of tools in the low shoulder carry position from the
Truck to the selected roofline. Again, we have approached this in a
premeditated and methodical manner. It would be arrogant to think
that we could arrive on scene and throw this task package together
By Firefighters, For Firefighters
! of 34
21
!