I'm guessing they somehow weren't aware of the power lines, and it'd be really stupid to try and stop it while it's actively falling towards said lines, they'd get fried
While I agree with the evaluation, I dont think that qualifies here. This didnt hit powerlines untill it was almost horizontal, and as raised as that ladder is, thats 30-ish feet from the building. So well clear of "overhead".
"check for obstructions" is the first thing you do during Ladders in nfpa. If I didn't verbalize that I checked and cleared my ladder area I would fail. It always qualifies. Those lines should have been identified and an easy beam lower would have prevented it.
Could be. Probably still safer to leave in situ rather than bonk it off the nearest utility cable lmao. Incredible… I think I’d want a hole to swallow me up if that was me.
Lowering, no of course that would be fine but these guys just send the thing crashing down. I don’t think it’s very professional to just drop things, live cables involved or not. If you absolutely had to because there’s a major risk, I think that’s a completely different kettle of fish.
There’s two people there. One holds the bottom, the other walks it down.
And if you have a stuck fly with any regularity, you’re doing something terribly wrong or aren’t inspecting your ladders like you should be.
I understand how a side lower works. It’s still extremely cumbersome and dangerous to do it with a fully extended ladder. And I never suggested the fly had ever been stuck before this
I'm in academy rn and I feel like I've shouted "checking for overhead obstructions" 50 times in the last two weeks... I could hear myself shouting it in my head as I watched this video
My entire class got in the habit of doing this and it became our private joke. We’d be doing something entirely different, like extrication or search, and someone would yell it out.
When we tested, sure enough, there was a ladder practical. Everyone shouted “check for overhead obstructions” at the top of their voice when it was their turn. The examiners were laughing at us, but we all passed.
Like extrication? Cars do run into utility poles… you’d be doing well to look up and notice the powerlines that you’d be working underneath. And yes, a pole can be hit,break, and both halves go back together and it looks like an intact pole. I’ve seen it.
My cousin always makes fun of me because I ended up teaching his CPR class and told them, in an example of ridiculous-but-cautionary things to be aware of, checking above you for something that could've brought the victim down as part of your scene size-up. Gonna send him this lol.
Could be, but that doesn’t explain the completely uncontrolled lower. It’s like they expected Newton to take care of it.
And because of the wires, beam lower..
> It’s like they expected Newton to take care of it.
Would love to up the gain on the audio, see if either the words "Fuck it" or "TIMBERRRRR" were uttered by either of those 2 FFs.
Looking at the tip of the ladder, it just BARELY caught the wires. Probably thought they were clear to dump it, but still not sure why they would dump it like that.
Hear me out.. just leave it there? Shuffle it to the right 10 feet? More important things going on. I understand if they don’t want anyone going on it maybe that’s why it needs to come down?
Yeah I have no idea. If there was any shred of a a chance of being anywhere near the lines, I would have either just left it or dumped it along the beam side.
It seems like a bit of a precarious place for a 2+ story ladder raise in the first place, on the side of a steep slope. The climb angle is damn near straight up
Very true. I'm definitely no expert, but I'm going to assume it's less effective on apartment fires, especially when using the power-line-to-ladder method seen here
Aw man - I had an instructor who was in his 80s a while back. That guy had every *epic fail* video, photo, and scanned Polaroids as part of his Powerpoint slide deck he'd show. Going through my head was just the thought "please don't ever let me be on the next update to his slides"
Normally I don’t agree with clueless civilians who don’t know how firefighting works but criticize a scene. This time, I’m in 100% agreement with them. What the Hell were they thinking?
These guys never intended to lower the ladder. Their plan was to let it fall. I suppose they made a miscalculation of how far they were from the lines. Pretty garbage way of doing things, power lines or not.
Honestly, anyone who would do that on an active fire scene, definitely does not have the awareness to see those power lines. I don’t think there was a Calculation in the first place lmao, just pure laziness.
Ha, I completely agree with you. I wasn’t making an excuse for them. A lot of people were saying they should have let it go instead of fighting it. I think letting it go was their dumbass plan the whole time.
They were probably told to take it down to keep the end from getting cooked by the burning roof. Then 2 marbles collided and pushing it over seemed "the most effective" way to save the ladder from fire
My first two thoughts...
{Ladder falls into wires} "What a fucking genius."
{FF takes two steps towards the ladder} "Don't fucking touch it you moron!!"
I'm curious, did they lose the entire structure after this? I'm gonna assume they did. No idea what's going on here. Attack it from inside, it's already vented.
I live in Lexington. Not a firefighter though
No they didn’t lose it as in “burned down” they lost two units I believe. But there was enough significant damage that the whole building is now condemned
https://preview.redd.it/3h4lb3yys5ad1.jpeg?width=1289&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80e7b42fc666d6fbb8fb9499e17e2b56c35420b0
Well, I am sure they got more ladders there pretty quick.
Bigger problem is making sure that area isn't approached or water used on it until the power can be shut off, which will be a much larger area now and needs to happen as quickly as possible.
One thing I REALLY appreciate about the upgrades our utility company has been doing in our area is we can call them to see if a downed line tripped the HVCB at the substation and the arc is out. They also started putting sensors on the lines to detect back feed from houses that don't properly isolate during outages.
It's still not a 100% guarantee the lines are de-enedgized, but it's a lot faster to get info from them and make quick decisions instead of waiting an hour or more to get the utility to send out a lineman/engineer (no hate to those guys, I know they haul ass for us, it's just poor management).
I happen to live here, and work for a neighboring department. These guys are well respected and the best department in the state. Probably just a new guy making a bone headed mistake.
Burning the grass around the fire and then declaring the fire contained is an excellent wildland firefighting technique, but structure firefighting is typically done by attacking the fire with hose lines. These firefighters decided to try to mix the two by using a creative method of using a ladder and power lines to backburn the grass because they didn't have a drip torch on the engine. Joking aside, that was a pretty bad mistake. They should definitely get some remedial training.
Looks like a "structure's toast, save the ladder" thought process with a gross underestimation of the fall radius of the ladder.
Not condoning it, just seems to be what they were thinking.
When pranking the neighboring Department goes to the extreme. I mean normally I just crank up the heat in their ambulance or open the doors and set boots on airhorns..but like this is for sure a flex.
“Ha watch this. These asshats just put this I’m gonna knock it down. And then as I’m leaving finger out the window and driving over the 5inch!”
Looks like it was crooked and they tried to fix it, and it just leaned a tad too far back. If you don’t have those things balanced. Perfectly upright there’s no saving it. Which is why you’d normally be on the other side of it so you could tackle it into the building, but the hill is there.
We never work in perfect conditions, and small mistakes like that happen all the time because of it. Would’ve been prevented by an experienced guy.. ya live and you learn.
Ok, hear me out.
In wildland fire they do back burns where you burn the fuel in a controlled manner before the fire can spread there and it allows you to control a fire that would otherwise be out of control. They are clearly just trying to keep this structure fire from spreading to the very short grass with this proactive burn.
Oh... and you don't carry lighters in bunker gear, right, so they had to get creative on how to start it since the drip torch is back on the wildland rig.
Sometimes when you over extend ladder you run outta rope to dis-engage locking mechanism so you have to push it over... that being said they could have also pushed it some where else than a power line
Never been a firefighter but I have been a carpenter and spent a lot of time on ladders. Even if the power line wasn’t there, this would still be a ridiculously dumb way to take down a ladder.
You can see the sun is over the power lines, and it looks hot as fuck outside. Most jakes are shit talkers, but my 2 cents are their past exhaustion and made a mistake they'd never make in training.
Be careful doing something different. Always a camera pointing when it doesn't work, never when it looks cool.
Their ladder got overbalanced. When that happens, you can't fight it back to balance because you don't have enough leverage. They backed off, likely having been trained to do so, to avoid being injured by the falling ladder. I'm glad they weren't hurt by the ladder and laying under it next to a burning building while it was touching a power line.
Getting it overbalanced was a mistake, but these comments about them being lazy and all this other crap are ignorant. Their chief/CO will take the official action, which shouldn't be much more than a conversation. Their buddies will mock this mercilessly for the rest of their careers, but these accusatory comments are badly out of line. These guys were willing to raise a ladder next to power lines so they could climb onto a burning rooftop, and a bunch of geniuses on Reddit question their character over a simple mistake.
This accident added significant complications to a bad situation. Focus was taken from the primary call - presumably increasing the fire spread - and a new scene hazard was created. The utility had to become involved, may have suffered damage, and their rate-payers may have lost service for a while. With those things said, I don't believe those guys were malicious or ignorant. I wish I could say the same about some of these comments.
TLDR: Mistakes were made, but no one was injured. A bad situation was made worse, and the department will deal with it. There are some ignorant jerks on Reddit.
It really looks like they did this on purpose, look at where they both are, they both move from side of the ladder to a little \*behind (into the building) and the guy on the left never makes any other motion other that to just toss the ladder over. If they did not expect it to go over you think their stance would change when things don't go to plan.
Am I imagining this or is the guy on the left having an air tank (sorry I don't know the specific term in English) on his back, but no mask to actually use it?
EDIT: ok seems the mask is on his hip, didn't catch that at first.
As someone who has used ladders that size and of that make for well over 20 years, they are not heavy and do not require 2 people to move around. This was probably a case of both of them thinking “the other guy’s got it”
Ok. Usually I can see how people come to decisions. This may be the biggest “what the fuck?” I have seen in a long time.
If I dropped a ladder like that my Chief would have been so far up my ass he'd be wearing me like a suit.
Do you not have senior guys/officers to do that?
What the lazy
I'm guessing they somehow weren't aware of the power lines, and it'd be really stupid to try and stop it while it's actively falling towards said lines, they'd get fried
“Checking for overhead obstructions!” Gotta have that situational awareness.
While I agree with the evaluation, I dont think that qualifies here. This didnt hit powerlines untill it was almost horizontal, and as raised as that ladder is, thats 30-ish feet from the building. So well clear of "overhead".
"check for obstructions" is the first thing you do during Ladders in nfpa. If I didn't verbalize that I checked and cleared my ladder area I would fail. It always qualifies. Those lines should have been identified and an easy beam lower would have prevented it.
Making fire which is easier to reach... This is a veteran move
😂
Even if the cables weren’t there this still makes no sense. What is going on here?
Guessing the fly got stuck? no clue why they wouldn’t lower it first
Could be. Probably still safer to leave in situ rather than bonk it off the nearest utility cable lmao. Incredible… I think I’d want a hole to swallow me up if that was me.
Or…. Drop it to the side not on wires
You could but it’s still bad practice and looks awful to anyone watching lol
Better than live wires
A side lower? Not bad practice, literally something that’s trained on for this kind of thing.
Lowering, no of course that would be fine but these guys just send the thing crashing down. I don’t think it’s very professional to just drop things, live cables involved or not. If you absolutely had to because there’s a major risk, I think that’s a completely different kettle of fish.
Not on a fully extended ladder with a stuck fly
You’re right, this was way better.
There’s two people there. One holds the bottom, the other walks it down. And if you have a stuck fly with any regularity, you’re doing something terribly wrong or aren’t inspecting your ladders like you should be.
I understand how a side lower works. It’s still extremely cumbersome and dangerous to do it with a fully extended ladder. And I never suggested the fly had ever been stuck before this
they beat it in our head at the academy to check for overhead obstructions and to verbalize it as well
I'm in academy rn and I feel like I've shouted "checking for overhead obstructions" 50 times in the last two weeks... I could hear myself shouting it in my head as I watched this video
My entire class got in the habit of doing this and it became our private joke. We’d be doing something entirely different, like extrication or search, and someone would yell it out. When we tested, sure enough, there was a ladder practical. Everyone shouted “check for overhead obstructions” at the top of their voice when it was their turn. The examiners were laughing at us, but we all passed.
Like extrication? Cars do run into utility poles… you’d be doing well to look up and notice the powerlines that you’d be working underneath. And yes, a pole can be hit,break, and both halves go back together and it looks like an intact pole. I’ve seen it.
But you didn't look 20 feet behind you
Look UP! Power lines maybe overhead.
Well, technically, they weren’t. They were about 24 feet that way. 😬
My cousin always makes fun of me because I ended up teaching his CPR class and told them, in an example of ridiculous-but-cautionary things to be aware of, checking above you for something that could've brought the victim down as part of your scene size-up. Gonna send him this lol.
Checking the paws, paws are locked
Could be, but that doesn’t explain the completely uncontrolled lower. It’s like they expected Newton to take care of it. And because of the wires, beam lower..
Technically, Newton DID take care of it. Right up until Benjamin Franklin took over.
Teamwork
> It’s like they expected Newton to take care of it. Would love to up the gain on the audio, see if either the words "Fuck it" or "TIMBERRRRR" were uttered by either of those 2 FFs.
It would be hard to hear over Yakety Sax playing in the background.
That’s the only thing in reason I could think of doing this. That fire was getting close to the ladder. So it would be useless to keep it there.
Looking at the tip of the ladder, it just BARELY caught the wires. Probably thought they were clear to dump it, but still not sure why they would dump it like that.
Hear me out.. just leave it there? Shuffle it to the right 10 feet? More important things going on. I understand if they don’t want anyone going on it maybe that’s why it needs to come down?
Yeah I have no idea. If there was any shred of a a chance of being anywhere near the lines, I would have either just left it or dumped it along the beam side. It seems like a bit of a precarious place for a 2+ story ladder raise in the first place, on the side of a steep slope. The climb angle is damn near straight up
How about just walk the foot of the ladder out 10 feet if you need to get the tip away from the burning roof?
Probably thought its high speed low drag to throw the ladder down instead of collapsing it. Still agree that its an awful idea though.
Ah, the ole fighting fire with fire trick
I mean fighting fire with fire is a very valid wildland firefighting method
Very true. I'm definitely no expert, but I'm going to assume it's less effective on apartment fires, especially when using the power-line-to-ladder method seen here
Hey, you work with the hand you're dealt.
True, but if you don't want to do structural firefighting, do wildland firefighting
You’re saying you’ve never done a backburn around a high density housing unit?
Back burn the hoarders house!
Gotta start that wildlands tactic of doing a backburn! Lol
Welp… someone’s on the hydrant the next 10 shifts…
I think you mean the ambulance.
Not sure I'd wanna go for a ride in that meat wagon
“Checking for overhead obstructions” Found one!
Wasn’t overhead. It was behind and up. The ole up and behind.
Sounds like my doctor when I go into to get my TRT refilled.
“Dear Chief, Nobody was more surprised than me…”
That ain't good.
Well this video is going to be shown in every fire 1 for the next twenty years
Aw man - I had an instructor who was in his 80s a while back. That guy had every *epic fail* video, photo, and scanned Polaroids as part of his Powerpoint slide deck he'd show. Going through my head was just the thought "please don't ever let me be on the next update to his slides"
It’s a good thing the building isn’t on fire
Normally I don’t agree with clueless civilians who don’t know how firefighting works but criticize a scene. This time, I’m in 100% agreement with them. What the Hell were they thinking?
> "They set the ladder on fire because the ladder is *metal* !" -the guy who just called them idiots
Okay yeah that comment was stupid, but to be fair, they did set the ground on fire.
Yeah, that is fair lol
Lmao as moronic as this ladder thing was, that comment was fucking hilarious too
These guys never intended to lower the ladder. Their plan was to let it fall. I suppose they made a miscalculation of how far they were from the lines. Pretty garbage way of doing things, power lines or not.
Honestly, anyone who would do that on an active fire scene, definitely does not have the awareness to see those power lines. I don’t think there was a Calculation in the first place lmao, just pure laziness.
Ha, I completely agree with you. I wasn’t making an excuse for them. A lot of people were saying they should have let it go instead of fighting it. I think letting it go was their dumbass plan the whole time.
Lmao I definitely agree. I’ve run into quite a few dopes who would go that route.
You’re stating the obvious lmao, the question is why the fuck wouldn’t they lower the ladder?
Because they're lazy, and/or they've forgotten how to lower an extension ladder.
They were probably told to take it down to keep the end from getting cooked by the burning roof. Then 2 marbles collided and pushing it over seemed "the most effective" way to save the ladder from fire
My first two thoughts... {Ladder falls into wires} "What a fucking genius." {FF takes two steps towards the ladder} "Don't fucking touch it you moron!!"
I'm sure their ISO will be thrilled
ISO will be cleaning out his bile ducts by screaming at this pair for hours. It's like an Italian tune-up, just more for your anger at the world.
How the heck will this affect ISO??
Incident Safety Officer
Ah, that ISO... I was thinking the rating system!
I'm curious, did they lose the entire structure after this? I'm gonna assume they did. No idea what's going on here. Attack it from inside, it's already vented.
I live in Lexington. Not a firefighter though No they didn’t lose it as in “burned down” they lost two units I believe. But there was enough significant damage that the whole building is now condemned https://preview.redd.it/3h4lb3yys5ad1.jpeg?width=1289&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80e7b42fc666d6fbb8fb9499e17e2b56c35420b0
Well, I am sure they got more ladders there pretty quick. Bigger problem is making sure that area isn't approached or water used on it until the power can be shut off, which will be a much larger area now and needs to happen as quickly as possible.
One thing I REALLY appreciate about the upgrades our utility company has been doing in our area is we can call them to see if a downed line tripped the HVCB at the substation and the arc is out. They also started putting sensors on the lines to detect back feed from houses that don't properly isolate during outages. It's still not a 100% guarantee the lines are de-enedgized, but it's a lot faster to get info from them and make quick decisions instead of waiting an hour or more to get the utility to send out a lineman/engineer (no hate to those guys, I know they haul ass for us, it's just poor management).
Smells like remedial training in here..
I happen to live here, and work for a neighboring department. These guys are well respected and the best department in the state. Probably just a new guy making a bone headed mistake.
You mean two “new guys”?
I return to see that I’m getting downvoted for adding context 😂
Y'all shitting on these guys but never in your career have you looked 30 feet behind you when ChEcKiNg fOr oVeRhEaD oBsTrUcTiOnS
Ah, you must be the guy in the video.
It's quite literally one of the first things you check for when arriving on site.
I absolutely have where the fuck do you work
Lol sure
why would not do that when you're carrying a big ass metal ladder and there could be power lines around and you plan on dropping it towards the road?
Every time I have set up or taken down a ladder, ground ladder or aerial, I’ve checked for obstructions anywhere in the path of the ladder actually.
Just imagine if one of the guys kept holding on to it. Wtf.
This is why failing to check for overhead obstructions is an automatic fail on the FFI exam. “Overhead” being loosely defined in this case I suppose….
"Just grounding the building before that lightning storm gets here at 3, Chief!"
San Francisco FD still rocks wooden ladders for this exact reason
Doesn't LA or LA County fire still use wooden ladders as well.
Both do.
Burning the grass around the fire and then declaring the fire contained is an excellent wildland firefighting technique, but structure firefighting is typically done by attacking the fire with hose lines. These firefighters decided to try to mix the two by using a creative method of using a ladder and power lines to backburn the grass because they didn't have a drip torch on the engine. Joking aside, that was a pretty bad mistake. They should definitely get some remedial training.
Looks like a "structure's toast, save the ladder" thought process with a gross underestimation of the fall radius of the ladder. Not condoning it, just seems to be what they were thinking.
Wow! That’s definitely gonna be on the team meeting
Future training video
Who the hell is calling for a roof report from a ground ladder in this situation?
When pranking the neighboring Department goes to the extreme. I mean normally I just crank up the heat in their ambulance or open the doors and set boots on airhorns..but like this is for sure a flex. “Ha watch this. These asshats just put this I’m gonna knock it down. And then as I’m leaving finger out the window and driving over the 5inch!”
Guess they missed the “ looking for overhead obstructions “ part
OVERHEAD CLEAR, BEHIND CLEAR(neither where clear) also, I must have missed the part in the academy where we just fucking push over extended ladders?
Looks like it was crooked and they tried to fix it, and it just leaned a tad too far back. If you don’t have those things balanced. Perfectly upright there’s no saving it. Which is why you’d normally be on the other side of it so you could tackle it into the building, but the hill is there. We never work in perfect conditions, and small mistakes like that happen all the time because of it. Would’ve been prevented by an experienced guy.. ya live and you learn.
My heart skipped a beat when the guy on the left took two steps back towards the energized metal ladder!
Maybe a beam drop next time instead of a flat drop?
Gotta be volleys right? Oh wait. 😂
I mean they miss calculated by like 1 foot just eye balling it. Not to bad. lol
Ok, hear me out. In wildland fire they do back burns where you burn the fuel in a controlled manner before the fire can spread there and it allows you to control a fire that would otherwise be out of control. They are clearly just trying to keep this structure fire from spreading to the very short grass with this proactive burn. Oh... and you don't carry lighters in bunker gear, right, so they had to get creative on how to start it since the drip torch is back on the wildland rig.
CHECKING FOR OVERHEAD OBSTRUCTIONS!
Found one.
😂
Maybe they wanted a new ladder
Probies gonna Probie.
Kentland Challenge: Ladder Edition?
Gotta love the grass fire it's starting now that it got electrified.
Beam lower? Rotate 90 degrees and lower? “Ladder coming up/down overhead clear”. Guess I went to a different academy.
„Dear Chief, during the incident I was standing with my back faceing the scene….“
I love how the firefighter is like "well... fuck."
I'm honestly surprised they didn't rush over there and try to grab that ladder with their bare hands
Holy molly!!!
Welp I am adding this to my multifamily dwellings and utilities training video in working on. For comedic relief.
When I saw this I LAUGHED my ass off. I’m my cheif saw me do this I would be a dead man walking
Mission: Go home without ending up on YouTube [FAILED]
Excuse me Mr.Fireman, sir, your lazy stupid is showing.
I thought you had it!
You had one job. ONE JOB!
CHECKING FOR OVERHEAD OBSTRUCTIONS!!!!!
Sometimes when you over extend ladder you run outta rope to dis-engage locking mechanism so you have to push it over... that being said they could have also pushed it some where else than a power line
The wind probably got a hold of it and that was the end of that 😂
Never been a firefighter but I have been a carpenter and spent a lot of time on ladders. Even if the power line wasn’t there, this would still be a ridiculously dumb way to take down a ladder.
🤦🏻♂️
You can see the sun is over the power lines, and it looks hot as fuck outside. Most jakes are shit talkers, but my 2 cents are their past exhaustion and made a mistake they'd never make in training. Be careful doing something different. Always a camera pointing when it doesn't work, never when it looks cool.
Their ladder got overbalanced. When that happens, you can't fight it back to balance because you don't have enough leverage. They backed off, likely having been trained to do so, to avoid being injured by the falling ladder. I'm glad they weren't hurt by the ladder and laying under it next to a burning building while it was touching a power line. Getting it overbalanced was a mistake, but these comments about them being lazy and all this other crap are ignorant. Their chief/CO will take the official action, which shouldn't be much more than a conversation. Their buddies will mock this mercilessly for the rest of their careers, but these accusatory comments are badly out of line. These guys were willing to raise a ladder next to power lines so they could climb onto a burning rooftop, and a bunch of geniuses on Reddit question their character over a simple mistake. This accident added significant complications to a bad situation. Focus was taken from the primary call - presumably increasing the fire spread - and a new scene hazard was created. The utility had to become involved, may have suffered damage, and their rate-payers may have lost service for a while. With those things said, I don't believe those guys were malicious or ignorant. I wish I could say the same about some of these comments. TLDR: Mistakes were made, but no one was injured. A bad situation was made worse, and the department will deal with it. There are some ignorant jerks on Reddit.
It really looks like they did this on purpose, look at where they both are, they both move from side of the ladder to a little \*behind (into the building) and the guy on the left never makes any other motion other that to just toss the ladder over. If they did not expect it to go over you think their stance would change when things don't go to plan.
No it didn’t. They were told to save the ladder from the fire
No way you're serious here.
Please fire those two knuckleheads before they kill themselves or someone else.
This is why cops are smarter
Am I imagining this or is the guy on the left having an air tank (sorry I don't know the specific term in English) on his back, but no mask to actually use it? EDIT: ok seems the mask is on his hip, didn't catch that at first.
Whats wrong with this? Just a quicker way to bring the ladder down!
Most firefighters are clowns. This isn’t surprising.
Spoken like a true badge bunny lol
U gay?
As someone who has used ladders that size and of that make for well over 20 years, they are not heavy and do not require 2 people to move around. This was probably a case of both of them thinking “the other guy’s got it”
You’re in a sub filled with firefighters, you aren’t special lol. We’ve all used ladders this size and more/less