Round Table Revisited

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Comment by Adam Miceli on March 21, 2009 at 1:51pm

This issue was one component of our replacing our straight stick with a tower ladder. We stopped allowing firefighters at the tip in the late 90's as we felt there was no reward in an aerial master stream operation worth a firefighters safety. These are jobs that have already been lost. We did see that we lost some accuracy in MS placement, and determined that a tower ladder provided much better aerial MS accuracy as well as FF safety. Coupled with our area having no platform type apparatus with 45 minuted response time, and two other sticks readily available, it made the most sense to us.

Comment by Skip Coleman on March 19, 2009 at 10:48am

Thanks Steve,
I agree that if you MUST go up, do what needs to be done and then get down! The view is wonderful but not worth the risk.

Comment by Steve Wilson on March 18, 2009 at 11:56am

March Roundtable - Firefighter on the Tip of the Aerial-I feel for the initial positioning and direction of your stream it may be necessary to temporarily place someone at the tip. However, this should be done with great caution. The concern is opposing master streams and the possibility of overdirecting a stream, striking another firefighter. The operation should be coordinated with units performing the task and channeled through an operations or command officer. Otherwise, keep firefighters off of the tip-Thanks.