Tower Ladder Operations

[57crew 1]

Just an offshoot from the post in incident workshop section about katonah fire. I was wondering what other departments SOP were for tower ladder operations. both for venting and master stream ops. two in the bucket for masterstreams, three in the bucket? also what is the SOP for venting, rescues, etc... In my department we don't have any written SOP's that i know of but we usauly run two in the bucket for master stream, one flying and one working the master stream. venting we usauly send two or three with tools; one to cut, one to be his back up, and sometimes a third for other tasks, ie second cut, pokeing through sheetrock after the cut is made, or just staying in the bucket to fly it. i don't know the SOP for rescues but i imagine two, one flying, one makeing the rescues, because that leaves space for the victoms.

[TRUCK6018 50]

As I had said in the other thread, we'll only have two in the tower for master stream op's and two or three for vent, rescue etc, when the water way is dry. This is not for the interest of working space but the interest of weight capacity.

Our rated platform load is 1000#'s. If we have 3 firefighters, with gear (turnouts, paks, tools), and the waterway wet, the weight will be exceeded.

Many manufacturers put the weight differences in their spec sheet. Example: For a new Sutphen SP95, It states the aerial platform device has a dry load capacity of 1000 lbs. and a wet load capacity of 500 lbs.