Hey Charles or Tim, is it true that the Saint John Fire Dept can only go as high as 7 stories with their ladders? So if you're on the 8th floor and there's a fire in the stairwell, you're outta luck?
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I'm not positive but in the fire fighting profession ladders are only ever used on lower floors, thats why they have nets for higher floors. The highest ladder in the world on a firetruck is 134 feet. A huge one in St.Paul is 100 feet and cost over half a million dollars, so whether its worth that money for the few extra floors I don't know.
I don't know how many buildings in Saint John are over seven stories, but if an average story is 15 feet (that's a approximation) then seven stories would give you a 105 feet, which is pretty high.
I may be wrong but there doesn't seem to be a story there, as that sounds pretty typical of firefighting practices. I would assume thats why buildings of a certain height have to have exits on opposite sides of the building so that structural integrity will be sound at least on one end.
9:11 - the question isn't so much the story of the height of the ladders that the fire dept has - it's more about the safety of people living above the 7th flr. A net is great, but do you want to be the one to jump from the 11th floor and hope to land in a net down on the ground??????????? The original question dealt with the scariest scenario of all where the stairways are on fire. Remember "Backdraft" from 1991 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101393/)? I realize it's a hypothetical question, but it's neither a joke nor a waste of time. The question becomes one of contingency planning and asking the fire dept what plans they have for that sort of situation. Could be another hard news story for Charles' blog. Fred
Look at the picture above. Streets are only so wide, which means that as the ladder goes up, the angle increases. Even the tallest ladders in the world only get you to seven to ten floors, depending on their height.
The maximum safe distance from the tip of the ladder to the turntable is 40 feet, while the extension angle can't be more than 70 degrees.
So in order to use ladders for higher floors, the ladders would have to be longer, and the streets would have to be wider. In Saint John there are numerous very narrow streets.
At the Saint John Fire Department website they have a picture of a hook and ladder truck with a 75 foot aerial ladder on it, so that's only 25 feet lower than many of the biggest american city's ladders. At their headquarters they have a 100 foot ladder with an attached scaffold, so there certainly is no reason to think they are any different than any other city.
As said, in cases where buildings have more than seven stories, stairs and elevators must be located at opposite ends of the building.
If none of those are available, then nets and airbags are used or helicopters. In most situations I believe the procedure is to get people immediately away from the fire, to the highest level, then fire workers clear one of the passageways.
Ladders can go to rooftops, but rooftops have no secure structures on either side to maintain the ladder so that is not typical practice unless necessary.
5 comments:
I'm not positive but in the fire fighting profession ladders are only ever used on lower floors, thats why they have nets for higher floors. The highest ladder in the world on a firetruck is 134 feet. A huge one in St.Paul is 100 feet and cost over half a million dollars, so whether its worth that money for the few extra floors I don't know.
I don't know how many buildings in Saint John are over seven stories, but if an average story is 15 feet (that's a approximation) then seven stories would give you a 105 feet, which is pretty high.
I may be wrong but there doesn't seem to be a story there, as that sounds pretty typical of firefighting practices. I would assume thats why buildings of a certain height have to have exits on opposite sides of the building so that structural integrity will be sound at least on one end.
Why do you think that they can't go to the top?
9:11 - the question isn't so much the story of the height of the ladders that the fire dept has - it's more about the safety of people living above the 7th flr. A net is great, but do you want to be the one to jump from the 11th floor and hope to land in a net down on the ground??????????? The original question dealt with the scariest scenario of all where the stairways are on fire. Remember "Backdraft" from 1991 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101393/)? I realize it's a hypothetical question, but it's neither a joke nor a waste of time. The question becomes one of contingency planning and asking the fire dept what plans they have for that sort of situation. Could be another hard news story for Charles' blog. Fred
Look at the picture above. Streets are only so wide, which means that as the ladder goes up, the angle increases. Even the tallest ladders in the world only get you to seven to ten floors, depending on their height.
The maximum safe distance from the tip of the ladder to the turntable is 40 feet, while the extension angle can't be more than 70 degrees.
So in order to use ladders for higher floors, the ladders would have to be longer, and the streets would have to be wider. In Saint John there are numerous very narrow streets.
At the Saint John Fire Department website they have a picture of a hook and ladder truck with a 75 foot aerial ladder on it, so that's only 25 feet lower than many of the biggest american city's ladders. At their headquarters they have a 100 foot ladder with an attached scaffold, so there certainly is no reason to think they are any different than any other city.
As said, in cases where buildings have more than seven stories, stairs and elevators must be located at opposite ends of the building.
If none of those are available, then nets and airbags are used or helicopters. In most situations I believe the procedure is to get people immediately away from the fire, to the highest level, then fire workers clear one of the passageways.
Ladders can go to rooftops, but rooftops have no secure structures on either side to maintain the ladder so that is not typical practice unless necessary.
Wow! Great information, thank you. Amazing on what you can learn on a little blog. Fred
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