Bugles Across America

An interesting and worthwhile site was brought to my attention the other day.  The site is called Bugles Across America and it was founded in 2000 by a man named Tom Day after Congress passed legislation stating Veterans had a right to at least 2 uniformed military people to fold the flag and play taps on a CD player at their funeral.  In essence, the site locates volunteer buglers  from all over the country to play taps at the funerals of veterans instead of having to play it on a CD.

You do not have to be a veteran to help.  You can be any age and the only requirement is that you have to be able to play Taps with an ease and style that honors the deceased veteran.  If you are interested in volunteering your time or you know someone who might, you can click here to find out more about volunteering.

GPM’s vs. BTU’s

Here are some photos of Aerial 2 extinguishing a stubborn rubbish fire.

Remember, you’ll never overcome the btu’s without the proper gpm.

-George

Chicago Fire Department Raising Wooden Ladder

Found this old clip of Chicago Fire raising a wooden ladder.  Seeing video like this helps appreciate what we have today.

Enjoy.

George

Triple Trouble

While doing a walk-through of a local auto paint supplier’s warehouse we found this triple threat at the rear entrance to the occupancy.  1st the overhead door opens to a small storage area and leads to the rear door of the occupancy.  The rear door of the occupancy is a steel door, but  oddly enough looks pretty easy since it has panic hardware on the outside to get in.

But when you push the door and get two to three inches of clearance the door is blocked.  This is what’s behind it.

An overhead door that is locked every night at closing.  This would be challenging for the crew assigned to open up the rear and at the very least, a lot more time consuming than you might originally think.

Overhead Obstructions

When traveling, it’s always interesting to see what other cities have to deal with in terms of construction and unique hazards that we don’t necessarily have to deal with in Miami.  In Barcelona, their water source is an inch and a half outlet tied to a water main that is never more than 4″.  Because of this shortcoming they fight fire the opposite of us with high pressure, low gallonage. If you work in San Francisco this is what you have to deal with

cable car high voltage lines

Those are high voltage lines that power the cable cars and the MUNI line.  I walked down many streets where you’d be hard pressed to find a safe place to spot your truck and raise the boom.  Additionally, San Francisco has some the steepest grade streets adding another challenge for ladder placement.  All of this must make for difficult fires and if I had to guess, I would say that some of the best truckies in the country probably work in this city.  Immediately, you can tell that San Francisco Fire Department has a great and proud tradition, but what jumped out at me were the wooden ladders.  Awesome craftsmanship and just about every size you’d ever need.

I was told by one of the guys on Truck 2 that they are the only fire department left in the country to build and maintain their own ladders.  The other few fire departments that use wood ladders purchase them from a company called Alaco Ladder Company.  SFFD has three craftsmen that repair, maintain, and build all of their ladders.  The reason for wood is obvious after looking at the above pictures with the high voltage lines.  I was also told that the wooden ladders resist heat for longer periods of time than aluminum or fiberglass and the extra weight of the ladder is actually a benefit when dealing with potentially high winds.  The weight is approximately 15% more than fiberglass and the wood they use is hand selected ash or hickory.  The oldest ladder still in service was built in 1919.  The largest ladder they carry is 50 ft. and weighs 350 pounds.  This was about as much as I could get out of them before they had to go.

Found a list of all the other departments using wooden ground ladders:

– San Francisco

– Oakland

– Hayward

– Alameda County

– San Mateo

– Los Angeles

– Los Angeles County

– Glendale (Los Angeles County)

– Pasadena

– West Covina (Los Angeles County)

– Montebello (Los Angeles County)

– Arcadia (Los Angeles County)

– Bellevue, Wash.

There may be more, but this is what I found.  Wish I would’ve been able to raise and climb a few of them to feel the difference.  If you want to find out more about SFFD you can click here.