Bill Schnaekel from Fairfax County Firehouse 30-C sent in this picture that his captain shared with him. It’s nothing more than a 2 section 35 foot ladder. Or is it? Look close before reading the remainder of the post.
Did you find Waldo? A second look at the ladder reveals that the locks are installed upside down on the fly section, making it impossible to extend! Despite daily equipment checks, this ladder was in service for approximately 7 – 9 months on a front line truck company (just as an FYI, it was not Fairfax County. Unfortunately this issue was not discovered until the ladder was needed on an incident. This photo exemplifies how important it is to intimately know the equipment on the apparatus. Another few questions come to mind: How did this happen? Did it come that way? Who put this thing back together the wrong way? If someone did take it apart, why did they not fully check the functionality of the ladder prior to returning it to service?
Each one of us knows crews that this could have happened to…The solution is simple: Go out and TRAIN! Had that ladder been thrown during training, the “issue†would have been found much sooner.
WOW… something you dont expect to see but I guess could happen. Definitely something good to share. I go back to work tomorrow and you can bet I’m gonna be taking a look since our ladders just went out for service LAST WEEK!!
THANKS BILL!
I have no idea how that could happen. you would have to take the sections apart, remove the halyard, reveres it, and put the sections back together. Plus i am sure you would have to drill a hole to attach the halyard to the rung at the “foot” of the ladder. Either this is a prank that someone had pulled or someone REALLY screwed up in QC at the company that made the ladder.
…Or, the dogs weren’t working well so someone took them off the ladder to clean and lube them and simply re-installed them backwards… I could see it happening, but it certainly should have been recognized within the first few minutes of maintenance being completed!
Last spring our Capt. instituted a ladder maintenance program for our primary and reserve ladder trucks assigned to my station. Odd numbered months Ladder 1’s ladders are maintained, even numbered months are Ladder 2’s. You’d be amazed at the problems we found and rectified in the first few months of doing this task!
Each shift is assigned about 3 ladders each month, and all they have to do is find an hour anytime during the month to pull them off the truck, extend them on the sawhorses, pressure wash them, inspect them, lube the glides, dogs & other moving parts, and test raise/extend them. Since there aren’t all that many ladders, one shift is also assigned hand tool maintenance for the month. The program also requires each shift to degrease, pressure wash and lube one of the 2 aerial devices once a year (each is done in the spring and fall).
Once we got into the habit of doing the “extra work” we discovered that its a pretty efficient way to keep the equipment well maintained and see that it comes off the truck at least 6 times a year… even the engine pitches in if they aren’t out on EMS!
I’ll send a copy of the maintenance schedule & guidelines to Jimm &/or Jeff, others may want to use it as a template.
Be safe Brothers.
Chris
A routine maintenance program is an easy fix. In addition to brass, glass, brass, etc, we have a department-wide day for ladder inspection & cleaning (Wednesdays). All ladders are removed from the rigs, extended, retracted, checked, cleaned and lubricated as needed. A lot of little things are discovered during these checks and with all hands from the company working, it’s relatively light work, usually evolves into a quick drill and doesn’t take that long at all.
Our rig is a mid-mount TL and at shift change one morning as we went over the rig and prepared to wash the ladders, it was discovered that the butt end of the 20′ roof on the officer’s side had been crushed into an ‘S’ at an incident the night before as the boom had been bedded. As it turned out, the electronic visual and audible indicators weren’t calibrated correctly (the painted line between the turntable and the top deck of the rig HAD been calibrated correctly) and there was some damage done.
The point remains the same, it’s a good thing to find potential problems before they have a chance to rear their ugly heads when the equipment is needed.
Be safe.
So I read this and it gave me the nessecary motivation to double check our portable ladders… sure enough – One was just about to loose a dawg all together and the other had a very loose halyard (I doubt it would’ve lasted enough to get it up in the air)
To make life better, the ladders were signed off on 6 times over the past 5 months.
Chris – I’d love to see those schedules and guidelines. I’m still relatively new to this field, but our Assistant Chief is very approachable and would probably be willing to help get some more defined procedures in place.
You know we check our ladders for bends , cracks and brakes but thats something that would just be over looked.
PARAMEDIC Bill,
Thanks for the heads up. Never would of cross my mind to check the locks on the ladder always ASSUMING it is right. I will share this information with my training officer and the rest of my company. Stay safe brother Jeremy
This was a good catch and reminder that our number 1 job is to be “always ready”. This means us, our crew and the equipment. The way I look at it is this…if there is a chance that you will use it on shift, then check it!!! Thanks guys, keep up the good work and be safe out there.
– Craig
“Ladderday Saturday” can help eliminate things like this from slipping by. Each saturday we try to spend about an hour or so throwing ladders at the station. saturday works well because were not covered up with inspections and hydrants and dept training etc. unless of course the tallest ladder in your “premier” first due is only 16′(sorry inside joke.)
My question is how did this ladder pass a UL (or other certifing test) with out some one finding this. Even the manufacturing company should have noticed this when load testing the ladder. I agree, either a mess up in replacing the dogs after maintenance and bad daily checking habits of that truck company.
WOW,I hope the ladder was not needed to rescue someone. Most departments do not perform ladder maintenance unless they still use wood ladders (LAFD). During apparatus inspections ladders are not necessarily inspected either. It is very important to train with ground ladders. Ground ladders use and skills are under utilized. Not noticing this for 6-7 months is perplexing. Thanks for posting this article. Hopefully all of our brothers and sisters will go to work next shift and say a good morning to our all of our ladders.