By Bill Adams
The other morning, the raisin squad was looking at a trade journal that showed two aerial ladders, one painted black and one painted white (the aerial devices themselves—not the whole rigs). That started a week-long, no-win, aggravating, and hair-pulling dialog. The white hairs’ statements are in italics. “Why are they painted different colors?” “Doesn’t white reflect heat and black absorb it?” Another said, “They’re all supposed to be painted silver. They’ve been silver for years.” Harry, a known tightwad for at least the last 30 of those years, said, “Why spend money for paint if it ain’t required?” The consensus of those who could hear and were paying attention was, “A steel ladder has to be painted or it’ll turn into a big hunk of rust on top of the truck.” “How come they paint the tip orange?” I said the tip or top couple rungs are painted a bright color so it can be easily be seen on a smoky roof. Before they jumped on that statement, I reached my three cup limit and left. Note: The old timers were not disparaging or belittling any aerial ladder manufacturer, the types of material used in aerial construction, or any inhibitors aerial manufacturers put on or inside the structural members to prevent rust and corrosion. The geezers’ concern was color.
After doing some research, a couple mornings later I gave my expert opinion for the benefit of those who still remembered the topic. I said one dealer claimed aluminum aerials don’t have to be painted. Another dealer said one of his competitors promotes hot dip galvanized that “looks like a guardrail.” Another said it costs about five grand to paint an aerial, and yet another said paint is standard and included in the cost of the rig. One claimed it cost the same regardless of color. They weren’t impressed.
Before the squad started to doze off, I mentioned the only thing required by National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, sentence 19.18.6 is a truck-mounted light to “observe the effect of the stream from the ladder pipe” and “a light at the base of the aerial to illuminate it in any position” (sentence 19.18.5). There was nothing about seeing the ladder for a quick egress from a roof. One of them said if it was so darn important to see the tip of the ladder, the standard would have called for more lights or a special paint color. He added, “They got all sorts of rules and regulations for how bright those dumb vests have to be that they make you wear.” “Yeah,” claimed another, those stupid traffic cones and the Scotchlite™ striping on the rigs gotta be a certain color.” “They’re only concerned about not ramming the aerial into the building. They don’t care about getting off the roof.” Vendors should be aware that raisins on an aerial ladder purchasing committee could make selling interesting at the least and miserable at the most.
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