I can’t remember where I saw it, but there’s a photo floating around someplace showing a roof ladder going through a cellar window. At morning coffee at the firehouse, I mentioned using ladders at cellar fires. It was a mistake. One Raisin Squad member said, “There’s a difference between cellars and basements. Cellars aren’t necessarily full rooms. Look it up!” I asked if he ever heard of a “basement” nozzle or a Bresnan “basement” pipe or a wine “basement.” He had no sense of humor.
Roof ladders, about 19-inches wide, take up a good portion of cellar windows. Its doubtful some firefighters would fit through it especially wearing an air pack. In 50 some-odd years as a volunteer, I recalled once in the 1960s using ladders to access a cellar. During overhaul after a very nasty cellar fire, we used two collapsible ladders for access because the stairs burned out and there wasn’t an outside stairwell. (They’re sometimes called attic, folding and finger-pinching ladders.)
Two were used side-by-side because collapsible ladders are only about a foot wide and its easier climbing in full turnout gear. One geezer popped off: Get wider ladders or smaller firemen.
I mentioned today they can use short combination A-frame/single ladders or combination step/extension ladders. Depending on the manufacturer and model, they’re around 19-inches to 23-inches wide. Another white hair: “You just want to sell more ladders.” I said you know I’m retired. “It don’t matter – you’d sell ’em if you could.”
I advocate carrying 5-foot or 6-foot roof ladders with hooks to access first floor windows and to assist in scaling outdoor fences. I said the same ladder could be used for access/egress from a cellar by taking out the window and hanging the ladder on the inside with the hooks extending over the outside wall. Another geezer: “Everyone knows cinder blocks measure 16 x 8 x 8-inches. The hooks ain’t gonna fit over them. Use your head for something besides a hat rack.”
During another morning coffee, I asked what they thought about using a roof ladder as an emergency fire escape. They were primed: “What the hell are you talking about now?” I said use it like a pompier ladder. Their answers were predictable: “You forget your meds again this morning? Selling more ladders today? Ain’t a pompier a French wine? Do you mean a scaling ladder? They went by the wayside when they started putting air in the tires.” I should’ve stayed home.
If you’ve never seen a single-beam pompier ladder – look it up online. If you’ve never climbed one – don’t. If you get nervous and jerky and start rocking side-to-side, you’ll end up swinging in the breeze like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. And if you’re terrified of heights, look for heavy-duty Depends before climbing. There are two-beam versions called scaling ladders – once popular in Europe but I never saw one up close.
Back to using a “regular” roof ladder as a Pompier ladder or an emergency fire escape. Imagine catching a job with entrapment on an upper floor. Because of a building’s set back, parked cars, and wires, etc., an aerial can’t be used and the longest extension ladder carried will not reach. (Many ladder trucks only carry a minimum complement of ground ladders.)
Is it feasible to “slide” a roof ladder with opened hooks up the exterior wall and hook it on a window sill? Depending on the manufacturer, a 12-foot roof ladder weighs around 30 to 40 pounds. If there’re hooks on both ends, they might keep the ladder away from the exterior wall making it easier to climb. Its best to check with th