Did I mention they aren’t even rated as rescue aerials?
The small truck is certified to handle 15 people per ladder section for rescue. The massive 80,000lb one? It’s ~estimated~ to handle… 2.
Jason, (@jasonc_nc)
That big ladder truck? It’s not there for you, sorry.
A funny wrinkle in US fire response is departments demand huge ladder trucks that don’t serve the purpose most assume. People see them and think “They have to be big to reach high distances and save people during a fire. Smaller trucks would mean less safety for people stuck in a building during a fire DUH”.
Except in US doctrine the building is responsible for egress, full stop. You see this in the utility of American vs EU apparatus. The latter are explicitly referred to as rescue aerials, while US ladders exist to allow an elevated platform for suppression (to spray water) which EU aerials also do.
EU ladders “have evolved to create a device that sets up and levels quickly, and can raise, retract and extend at a fast pace to evacuate victims”. Meanwhile oversized US ladders cost >2x the price to operate ladders which are shorter, less capable, and less maneuverable at the scene.
So the end outcome, repeated over and over in US fire departments, is spending far more for less utility, while demanding conditions on city streets to serve large apparatus that actively harms life safety in other ways. Lose, lose, lose.
The below article clip is from 2016. Since then EU apparatus has continued to advance and improve in many ways. US apparatus is still in 1995. Yet the cost difference has continually widened.
— https://nitter.net/jasonc_nc/status/2034684905280442533#m