Fire Engines Photos

These wheeled 18 meter steel ladders were the French equivalent to the famous British wooden ( and later also steel) 15 and 18 meter escape ladders. In the fifties and sixties they were very widespread in France. Just like the escape ladders, they gradually died out in later years as lightweight three section ground ladders became available - as well as the more widespread use of turntable ladders, which were often 24, 27 or 30 meters.

As this example illustrates, the French approach was almost always to have a dedicated ladder truck, which carried a small crew and very little in the way of additional ladders or equipment, and lacked a pump or water tank. This was quite different from the classic British pump escape, which was a very well equipped fire fighting appliance.

Dedicated escape ladder carriers were also to be found in the early days in the UK from the 1890s onwards, but by the late 1920s the pump escape was much more commonplace. As petrol engines became more powerful, larger ladder trucks with pumps and water tanks became a more realistic solution.

Other countries had similar wheeled ladders. The German ones were designed to be towed behind a pumper, but these were already disappearing in the 1930s, as the Metz and Magirus turntable ladders were increasingly and aggressively marketed to fire services, in a choice of several lengths from a very compact 18 up to 30 meters.

Added by Rob Johnson on 03 March 2024.

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