Magic City Truck Academy, LLC instructor William Knight teaches firefighters how to climb aerial fire truck ladders while carrying tools, resulting in safer fire truck ladder operations.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Ladders, straddle the rails really easy.

Hooks straddle the rails, really easy, long stuff sits right on top of the rails.

And you can either hold the rails and the tool, or with some ladders, you can put your arms through the rungs and just grab the rails and just slide ’em up.

When carrying chainsaws up an aerial, make sure that the bar points opposite your direction of travel.

Instructor Tip

Chainsaws, you may find it easier to just let it hang from your arm or just set it on the rails. Whatever works for you is fine, but the big thing is make sure that the bar points opposite your direction of travel.

So if you’re going face first up or down the bar points to your rear, if you’re going backwards, backing down the bar points forward, it goes the opposite of your direction of travel.

So you don’t get it caught where? In the bracing.

All of the bracing on the side for the rails.

That’s really, this is gonna get turned just slightly the sideways to get jammed in there.

If you’re going face first, and this gets jammed. That might be the thing that causes to fall forward, which kinda hangs you up. If it’s this way, you can’t get hung up.

Then coming down, if I come down face first, I can’t slide tools down ahead of me. Right? That’s gonna be a quick ride to the bottom.

If you push the ladder up, you don’t have to push it down, turn it on its beam. Slide it down the, the rungs like a suitcase.

Instructor Tip

So I may have to switch it up. If I had a hook and I pushed up, coming down, I may have to put it on the rail and slide it down. Kind of like you do with ground ladders. If you push the ladder up, you don’t have to push it down, turn it on its beam. Slide it down the, the rungs. It’s like a suitcase just slide along with you.