Where firefighters come to talk training
Aerial & Parapit access
When it comes to roof access with a papapit, it can be a challenge to soundly/safely get on the deck of the roof without the use of a ground ladder to decend. That is of course unless you have an articulating platform.
In the past, we would use a roof ladder that was mounted to the inside of the outer fly of the aerial. The problem with this was that the roof ladder is a 16 footer and always longer and more cumbersome than what was really required. Nobody wants to be up on an aerial ladder and moving a 16' roofer around precariously just to get down 4-8'.
As a remedy, we recently added an additional 10' attic (folding) ladder to the aerial to overcome this challenge. Our shop, who does a great job, built a bracket to mount on the exterior of the bed/base section of the aerial that also carries a 12' hook. This should make our operations safer and more efficient for roof access from parapits.
What does your department or company use to access roof decks with deep parapits? What type of ladder/s and how are they mounted?
Views: 127
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on -
Nice Idea. I hope you kept the 16' roof ladder as an option. Our company has a tower that has a special bracket made by the manufacturer to mount the roof ladder to the basket. Which we can scale down or up to roof or basket. And it still is a pain to move around and attach. By the way it's a 20 footer. Again nice idea and BE SAFE Brother.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Berg on -
Gary,
Yeah, we absolutely left the 16' roofer on the fly. It's more realistic for us to be using the roofer on 6/12 pitch or steeper or a Western Washington slimy roof.
What manufacture is your truck? Also, is your 20' roofer stored with the regular compliment of ladders or on the aerial sections?
Thanks for adding your comments brother. -
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Permalink Reply by Eric Gamble on -
Chad
Its interesting that you brought this up. We were just discussing this at the bay table (this is the table in the bay that all the worlds problems are solved) and we have a 105' straight stick and we too have a 16' roof ladder mounted on inside of the upper fly. However the problem we have is that its set in so the hooks are towards the tip, if we needed this for roof access on a parapit then we turn it around so the hooks will hook on the egress portion of the stick. This works but its not the most safe way of deployment and it obviously adds time. When the house captain decided how to mount it, we pre-planned about 75% of our existing commercial structures with parapits and found that all had no parapit on the back side. So we determined that it was more feesable to mount it hooks up toward the tip for higher pitch residential roofs and ground ladder the backs of commercial structures with parapits as our first option. If we needed to access the parapit sides then we will either take the extra time to lock in and turn the roof ladder or secure the butt end to the egress of the tip.
Good post brother
Eric -
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Cox on -
We have a 105' straight and have a 10' mounted inside the upper fly and another 10' mounted in the "coffin" on the side of the base section. One thing on parapet ladders we've found useful in training are those cheap yellow ladder boots you can buy at any big box store to keep the spurs from piercing the membrane or tar roofing. Don't ask how we know this we just do ok.
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Permalink Reply by Rob Fisher on -
Eric,
For awhile, several of us on L72 fought (not literally) on how to store the 16' roofer in the fly section of the aerial. We finally agreed to store it with the butt towards the tip...actually, the others finally understood Chad's and my point.
The reasoning for storing the roofer with the butt towards the tip is it was easier to spin the tip around while somewhat standing on a pitch roof / aerial than it was while standing and balancing on the aerial at the parapet's edge. It was a safety issue. Once the others went out and tried it, and not just sat at the firehouse discussing (theorizing) what they would do, they quickly found out how hard it was to balance on the aerial while swing a 16' lightning rod around.
Is the mounting device for your roofer able to be switched around? If so, I would switch it so the roofer's butt is towards the tip. Or, look at another option like the one we did here on L72.
On another note...you bring up a great point about ladder access to commercial roofs that are two-stories or less. The rear of the structure is a great place for access! If the truck cannot fit down a alley or driveway, then use the ground ladder your momma gave you! No matter if you have a small attic ladder for access over a parapet, it's still much easier to access a roof with no parapet...from the rear.
Great post brother...and great topic Berg!
Rob -
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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on
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Chad, we have a Pierce tower with that 20' roofer mounted on the outside of the bed section. And thanks for the interesting discussions.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Gamble on
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Rob
Just read your reply. I like this type of forum because you get a different prospective on things such as this. Once we get our truck back from maint. I am planning on trying these.
Thanks for the reply, also how far are you guys from Sequim WA?
Stay safe -
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Permalink Reply by Rob Fisher on
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If you drive, we are about 2 hours away. However, if you take a ferry (not the kind you're thinking about when you think of Seattle) you a little over an hour without the ferry line wait. How do you about Sequim, WA?
Oh...try to tie this to Chad's parapet topic. -
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Permalink Reply by Josh Materi on -
I don't remember where I saw this, maybe San Antonio Fire, maybe Buffalo don't remember. Anyway, they modified the roofer that was mounted on the stick. They put hooks and spurs on both the tip and the butt. No baton twirling. Brilliant….
Thanks Chad,
Josh Materi -
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Permalink Reply by Rob Fisher on
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Josh,
Buffalo...Capt. Kertzie (?sp) had it in one of his lectures.
Rob -
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Permalink Reply by Josh Materi on
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Thats right, Vegas 06. That was a good trip.
Materi -
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Permalink Reply by Rob Fisher on
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That was a good trip! But, not as good as the Los Angeles trip...
Rob -
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