SFFD - Still Uses Wooden Ladders and Builds Them

[mack]

"The Ladder Shop." San Francisco Fire Department

 

[*******]

Wooden ladders, brings back memories. I came on 3/60. First day myself and 29 other probies reported to the 6th Division headquarters, 50 engine 166th and Washington. Still hard to believe but the training school was in session with a class, so two probies each were assigned to 15 companies in the division. Myself and another proby named Johnson stayed in the house with 19 truck. Lt. was named Whitney, nice guy. 19's truck was out of service and they had a wooden spare. A kid comes into qtrs and says "there is a cat in a tree down the block." Whitney says this will give us a chance to put the spare up so we roll down the block and take the cat out of the tree. My first day on the job, never took another cat out of a tree in the next 37 years. The wooden ladders were heavy as rock. The 35' extension was very heavy. Around the 2nd day 19 gets called over to the rock for evaluation. Myself and Johnson have borrowed turnout gear on so we look like regular firefighters. As we roll into training a rock Lt. starts assigning guys to various truck duties in the vacant buildings on Roosevelt Island. He tells me and Johnson to put a scaling ladder up to the 2nd floor of a building. We don't know what a scaling ladder is so we ask one of the other guys. He points to the ladder on the truck. Wooden scaling ladder, pretty heavy. As we are lifting it we drop it on the head, helmet, of another firefighter. The Lt. runs over to us and asks "how long are you two assholes on the job?" I say "what time is it." He says "what the hell difference does that make?" I say "well at 0900 we were on 24 hours." He has us sit by a tree and says don't touch anything. Wasn't a bad day. Later when I would have the tiller on a wooden spare you sat right over and on the aerial. When you raised the aerial you would remove the steering wheel so on power kick off the ladder would be clear. I was never comfortable with riding on those wooden aerials as I never knew if bouncing around the power kick off would activate with me sitting on top of it. Memories, I guess like it was said of those old timers, wooden ladders, iron men.

 

[Jake Rixner]

We used them in Richmond, Va.  Until about 1998 when the city went cheap and bought quints,  This was the end of all the Tiller rigs.  The newest tiller was a 89 Seagrave with the last wooden ladders made by Duo safety ladders.


Low & Safe Brothers

Jake