Anyone who has ever seen me walk on a horizontal, smooth surface would probably compare my gracefulness to that of a child taking his or her first steps. When I arrive at a fire, I often stumble from the rig and clumsily meander to the fire building. I then move to a crawl when going inside the structure or traversing ground ladders in the pursuit of venting a peaked roof. But how is it that an awkward character like me can have trouble walking on flat surfaces, but almost no trouble scurrying around on a peaked roof?
In this month’s column, I’ll address some methods for safely surviving a trip to a burning peaked roof while using ground and roof ladders. The methods I present here are by no means the only ways to operate safely on peaked roofs; they are simply the techniques I have found to be effective.
Ladders on the Peaked Roof
Roofs are peaked for a reason. They were designed so things would roll off of them, not settle on them. Designers want roofs to shed rain and snow. But with their sloped design, roofs can also shed firefighters.
A low-pitched roof has a 4/12 pitch or less. In other words, the roof rises 4 vertical inches for every 12 horizontal inches. This is considered to be a walkable roof, even though there’s nothing to prevent you from working off a roof ladder at these lower pitches. A 12/12 pitch, which is a 45-degree angle, rises 12 vertical inches for every 12 horizontal inches and is considered unwalkable. But no matter what the pitch, we must take action to increase our safety on roofs.
As you approach a fire, don’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out if the roof is walkable or not; just assume it’s not. Use a roof ladder on any roof to keep you from falling into what may be a raging inferno below. Why? The roof ladder allows you to distribute your weight over the length of the ladder. You can stray from your roof ladder, and it will still be there if conditions worsen. Another benefit of keeping a roof ladder in place: When visibility goes to zero, the roof ladder serves as a substantial and dependable pathway off the roof.
Throwing Ladders
Throwing ground ladders is our best defense against falling off (or through) roofs. Place ladders right away, and use as many as you possibly can. It is not uncommon for firefighters to prematurely remove or relocate ladders only to have to put them back up to reach hotspots during overhaul. As such, instead of moving ladders around to reach different targets, add ladders as you go and, conditions permitting, leave them up until the fire is out. As the incident progresses, you’ll find that there are many roof and ground ladders at key positions all over the building, giving you access to all possible fire locations. Note: When roof ladders are in short supply, use at least two ladders and “leap-frog” from one to the other, which will allow you to reach many spots by moving them one at a time as you go.
When using ground ladders, it is commonly recommended that they be tied off or secured at the base and at the tip. Some interpret this to mean that if you tie the halyard to something, you’re safe; however, this is a widespread misconception that could end in disaster. Tying the ladder’s halyard to something will only help keep the ladder in the general area. It can still fall in either direction, and its base can kick out from under it. To truly tie off the base requires that you use ropes other than the halyard. In most cases, mechanically footing ground ladders should eliminate the need to tie off the bases. (For more information about mechanically footing ground ladders, see “Put Your Best Footing Forward,” June issue, p. 52.)
Additionally, firefighters almost never tie off ladder tips even though NFPA 1932: Standard on Use, Maintenance, and Service Testing of In-Service Fire Department Ground Ladders recommends doing so. Here’s a common scenario: A 35′ extension ladder is positioned with the bottom of the top fly section resting on a slippery aluminum gutter or metal drip edge. A roof ladder is then placed on the roof from the top of the extension ladder. While stepping from the extension ladder onto the roof ladder, the roof ladder’s base starts to slide away from the extension ladder. A simple solution: Use a hose rope (or other personal rope or webbing) to attach the adjacent rails of the two ladders together where they meet, or use a simple girth hitch to hold the ladders together. With the roof ladder hooks properly set and the two ladders connected, there is no way for these ladders to come down.
When I first started attaching two ladders together, I encountered much criticism. Specifically, other truckies argued that if I tied the two ladders together, it would be difficult for other firefighters to use them. To this I asked, “Why would you take away the ladder that I just used to climb onto a burning roof? That’s my only way down.” If I need to move the ladders around to work, I’ll just untie them. If others need ground ladders, there’s usually a big red ladder container parked somewhere in the street; use those ladders.
Roof Ladders + Aerial Ladders
Many aerial ladders and platforms store a roof ladder in their ladder bed. This ladder usually ends up being the longest one on the rig because of the limited storage space in the ground ladder compartment. The irony of this: When working off the aerial, we seldom need a long roof ladder. The aerial ladder is sent to the peak, and we plop the roof ladder into place and work from the peak down. We usually try to ventilate toward the peak, and most hot spots and overhaul problem areas are found at higher portions of the roof. Further, working on a roof is one of the most demanding jobs we encounter on the fireground. Moving the 20′ roof ladder around becomes arduous, tiring and sometimes dangerous, as we must keep moving it around the peak area while only using a few feet of the ladder.
One of our roof ladders was recently damaged and taken out of service. A frugal and resourceful member of our company cut off the damaged portion of the ladder and, as a result, we now carry a 6′ roof ladder on our aerial. This ladder is very useful when we need to move easily around the ridge of peaked roofs, get by chimneys when scaling the ridge and make brief “space walks” from the safety of our aerial platform.
Another aerial-related roof ladder problem we often encounter is roof ladder hooks not being on the end of the ladder we want them to be on. When the roof ladder is stored in the bed, it is usually positioned so the hooks are located toward the tip of the aerial. If we want to position the ladder on the same side of the roof as the aerial, we simply open the hooks and drop the ladder down onto the roof. No problem. But what if we go up the aerial and need to ladder the opposite side of the ridge? Someone has to straddle the peak, hold the roof ladder over their head and spin it around. This requires dodging antennas, chimneys, other firefighters and overhead wires.
A nonsensical solution: Store the roof ladder with the hooks toward the turntable and the butt toward the tip of the aerial. I know, I know-this didn’t solve the problem. We’ll now have trouble if we need to ladder the roof on the same side as the aerial. We could put two roof ladders on the bed of the aerial: one facing up and one facing down. The problem is that the already-narrow bed of the aerial is getting crowded.
Still trying to resolve this problem, I examined the roof ladder and its construction. There are two rails, a bunch of rungs and, on one end, a round cap attached to each rail. On the other end, a butt is attached to each rail. On the end with the round caps, hooks are attached, thus making a roof ladder. Without the hooks, round caps or butts attached, the ladder is constructed in the same fashion from top to bottom. I quickly realized that the ladder doesn’t have a tip or butt end until the round caps and butts are attached. If this is true, why can’t I have hooks at both ends so when I get to the ridge, I can go to either side without having to spin the ladder around over my head? I went to our department shop and asked if they could attach hooks on the butt end. After getting permission, we were able to make this happen. One note: If you decide to add hooks to your own ladders, mount them high enough so they don’t interfere with the butt ends.
With our “push me, pull me” roof ladder in hand, we then set out to find a vacant house to train on. This was a fairly easy find on the East Side of Buffalo, N.Y. We put up the aerial and began tossing our ladder back and forth over the ridge. It worked fine and was a big improvement over spinning the ladder over our heads.
Summary
Putting up enough ladders to operate safely is key. Don’t be a minimalist when it comes to placing ladders, and don’t be in a hurry to put them away when you think you’re done with them. After all, getting where you need to go and working as comfortably and safely as possible requires a solid foundation to work from, and this comes from an infrastructure of properly placed roof and ground ladders. Next month’s column will conclude this subject with some additional pointers on how to operate on peaked roofs.
