Everyday fire departments respond to emergencies that require the capability to get people and equipment to elevated places to assist those in need. The piece of fire apparatus that most commonly fills this role is the department’s aerial ladder, elevating platform, ladder tower, etc.
While this arrangement fulfills the current need, is it necessarily the most efficient use of resources?
Aerial apparatus is a significant purchase for fire departments with new apparatus costing $800,000 and up depending upon make and model. The cost and that its most distinguished feature — enabling first responders to work above grade — is also its most infrequently used feature makes it difficult for communities to justify owning them.
The truck that carries the aerial apparatus is a critical piece of tactical firefighting operations to be sure. Yet, most departments get far more use out of their aerial apparatus in its role of an operational support vehicle because of the personnel, equipment, and ground ladders that it carries to the scene.
Beyond costs
Besides the cost, aerial apparatus is also a low-frequency, high-risk resource that presents several operational challenges for fire departments.
Members entering the fire service today often do not come with previous experience driving and operating large commercial trucks. This requires initial driver training to attain proficiency and ongoing training for incumbent drivers to maintain proficiency.
The landscape where aerial apparatus operate is also changing, which adds further challenges to fire departments that have such apparatus. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?
- Roads and bridges incapable of supporting such large vehicles either due to original constructions specifications or lack of maintenance.
- Apartment complexes and shopping centers where developers have employed landscaping that severely restricts the movement of vehicles with a large turning radius.
- The increasing popularity of neighborhood design that seeks to replicate the small town and neighborhood atmosphere of old with narrower streets, pedestrian malls, service alleys, etc.
Modular aerial apparatus
Many departments are making greater use of modular construction for fire apparatus and support vehicles. What about such a concept for the infrequently used, but extremely valuable when it is needed, elevating platform?
A couple of weeks ago, I had an extensive conversation on this topic with Dr. Will Brooks of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Brooks is a long-time member of the fire service, a well-published author, and founder and past president of the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation. He had reached out to me after reading my piece on modular fire apparatus options with a very good question: Why can’t we do modular aerial apparatus?
Brooks has traveled extensively across Europe where he saw many examples of self-propelled elevating platforms being used for emergency services work, particularly in Italy. Even when the elevating platform was permanently mounted to a truck chassis, the vehicles he saw — and photographed — were much smaller and compact than their American cousins.
Which make a lot of sense when you look at one of the biggest operational challenges for European fire brigades: driving and operating fire apparatus on narrow streets and roads and bridges. Sounds like our challenges listed above, right?
The way forward?
So what if we took one of these self-propelled elevating work platforms (SPEWP) and set it up to be carried on a transport vehicle that was already set up to carry other platform on demand (POD) components? For instance one vehicle that could, as needed, load and transport the SPEWP or a Hazmat POD or a mobile command post POD.
Take a look at the attached video and see if you’re mind doesn’t start firing with the possible uses for a SPEWP in your community for high-angle rescue work, overhaul of elevated fire positions, or moving people and equipment to elevated positions, especially in tight spaces like apartment complexes, shopping malls, etc.
Think of the possibilities for fire departments, especially those in smaller communities, that don’t necessarily need an NFPA-compliant truck mounted aerial (just to have elevated work and rescue capability) or that cannot afford a piece of fire apparatus with a sticker price of $800,000 or more.
Even larger departments could reduce their expenditures of time and money necessary to maintain several traditional aerial devices by replacing one or more with a SPEWP POD.
Some of the first elevating platforms now in use by the fire service had their origins in the industrial sector. How many news articles still refer to our ladder towers and tower ladders as “cherry pickers?”
Maybe it’s time we turned back the clock and looked at how today’s SPEWP may help fire departments meet their mission requirements more safely, effectively and efficiently.
