“Are you a truckie or an engine person?”
This is a question often asked of firefighters regarding their preferred role on the fireground. Though a fun debate, there are many departments that do not have the luxury of dedicated truck companies or engine companies – they become quint companies, which are a combination of both.
In departments that do have dedicated truck companies, firefighters are responsible for certain fireground functions such as search and rescue, forcible entry, recon, RIT, establishing an elevated access to building, ventilation, and ground ladder utilization. Departments that do not have dedicated truck companies are still responsible for completing these functions, but with personnel who may be on an engine or a quint.
The important role of ground ladders
While quint companies are tasked with putting up ground ladders at structure fires, this function is often overlooked or skipped due to a lack of personnel available to perform the task. Instead, personnel are diverted to other responsibilities, like pulling a handline, searching for occupants, fire suppression, establishing and maintaining a water supply, and RIT operations. Ground ladders are usually an after thought or used only when needed for certain ventilation tasks.
Our corresponding video highlights a fire at a small residential building. Notice how many ladders are placed at the house by the responding crews. At the 1:21 mark, you will notice three ladders at the building – two aerial ladders on the Alpha side and a ground ladder on the Delta side. Unfortunately, the video does not show the Bravo and Charlie sides of the building, so we don’t know if there are ladders in those locations as well.
The importance of ladders raised to a building is not only to provide access to the building from the outside but, more importantly, egress out of the building for crews working inside. The need to evacuate quickly requires ladders to be raised and positioned at various parts of the structure.
At residential structure fires where all four sides of the building are accessible, there should be four ladders raised – one positioned at each side. This will provide four means of egress for members, in addition to the main door of the building for interior crews.
How quint companies handle ground ladder operations
With limited hands available, who is responsible for ensuring that ground ladders are deployed in a timely manner? Once water has been sent up the hoseline and the pump is running, the driver of the first-arriving company can put up the first ladder. When the next arriving engine or unit arrives on scene, that driver can put up a second ladder.
If there is an aerial device on scene, that can be raised to the building and the aerial operator can put up one or two ground ladders as well.
No matter what size the residential building is or the lack of available working hands, ladders can (and should!) be put up. This needs to be done with the focus of protecting the crews working inside the building. So, ladders up!
Training time
After watching this video with your company, take the following steps to ensure that everyone understands who is responsible for getting ground ladders to the structure:
1. Find a building or use a training building to practice firefighter ladder carries and raises.
2. Create a training scenario that requires the driver to put up one ground ladder after establishing water to the handline.
