This shot nicely illustrates just how a ladder truck can help make roof work as safe as possible for crews attending incidents at even a modest structure like this, with only two floors.
British fire brigades continue to cut back on the numbers of appliances they operate, including aerials, and LFB did not even dispatch one on the first alarm to the disastrous Grenfell Tower fire - an occupied high rise apartment building with 300 flats reporting a fire in the middle of the night!
It is worth bearing in mind that in other European countries like France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain - all with similar kinds of structures - it is standard practice to send an aerial on the first alarm not only to tall buildings but also to virtually every dwelling house fire, unless it is in a remote rural area.
As British fire services try to cut costs while still preserving a minimal level of fire protection, there is an obvious solution which does not require any reductions in the numbers of fire stations, fire appliances or firefighters.
This is to recruit unpaid volunteers to staff less busy fire stations and also to back up full time staff at stations in larger cities and towns. This solution is almost universal worldwide, and most countries have between 50% and (in Germany) 97% unpaid volunteer firefighters.
British fire brigades continue to cut back on the numbers of appliances they operate, including aerials, and LFB did not even dispatch one on the first alarm to the disastrous Grenfell Tower fire - an occupied high rise apartment building with 300 flats reporting a fire in the middle of the night!
It is worth bearing in mind that in other European countries like France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain - all with similar kinds of structures - it is standard practice to send an aerial on the first alarm not only to tall buildings but also to virtually every dwelling house fire, unless it is in a remote rural area.
As British fire services try to cut costs while still preserving a minimal level of fire protection, there is an obvious solution which does not require any reductions in the numbers of fire stations, fire appliances or firefighters.
This is to recruit unpaid volunteers to staff less busy fire stations and also to back up full time staff at stations in larger cities and towns. This solution is almost universal worldwide, and most countries have between 50% and (in Germany) 97% unpaid volunteer firefighters.
Added by Rob Johnson on 23 January 2019.