On this Fleet Friday we take a tour of Tower 45. The crew at Firehouse 45 protects South Metro's 4th Battalion including areas in and around the Town of Parker, Colorado.
I have a hard enough time maneuvering my police SUV through traffic. I could never manage this beast. I'd be screaming at people while simultaneously loosing my mind
All the apparatus there in South Metro are my favorites. You all have great Rigs and vehicles. Thank you so much for saving others when they call for help. Thanks for being heroes of the community
erik short and I’m an engine junky! We go on calls. You guys work on calls. Lol. But in my city, the engine does both cause the ladder only has one person on it. We are combination. ISO Class 2.
Crazy cool watch this coming from one of the bigger departments call area wise in my county and seeing all the things y'all carry. Man is it different done here in the south we are lucky to get half the stuff y'all got on one truck on the whole fire scene let alone the man power to. Most place I'm at will run a two man truck and some form of command car so we may get 6-8 guys on a fire lol
🚒🚒🚒Awesome, but I am scared of heights so I don't think I will be on Tower 45 but that is awesome its huge. Must take a lot of training to drive one of those. South Metro has the best of everything, shiny new rigs, lots of awesome equipment and great people doing the job. Weren't you the first to have the Thumper for CPR ? I guess those are gone now I never see them. (My dad knows about the Thumper just we never see it around anymore)
@@SouthMetroFireRescuePIO Thank you, maybe one day I will get use to heights . That is awesome with CPR, sounds like everyone has something to do which is good training also.
Quick question (typing this a minute in so it may get answered) why a mid-mount? Why 95ft? The ascendant offers a 105-107 with single axel so I'm guessing less bucket away??
This is a really cool rig and it seems the guys on it have put a lot of thought into it. But one thing (that was probably built in) sounds really dangerous for me: If the entire thing can be shoutdown by the emergency stop, but can only be reset from the place the shutoff was pushed, that could lead to a situation where an incapacitated firefighter in the basket slumps over the red button - and now you have an inop ladder with an injured buddy stuck at third floor. Sure, someone could climb the ladder and manually take the injured off the button (that's the main advantage over telescopic platforms), but that's gona take time and risks another firefighter. I think that should be looked at...
Awesome video and very educational. But why would the B-seat or the Bravo seat or the passenger seat or the officer seat have his halogen tool on the opposite side?
Great video very informative. I have two questions... 1. Why did you guys go from Sutphen to a Pierce mid mount platform? 2. Why hinged doors rather than roll-up doors? To me the hinged doors get in the way and block visibility both for the firefighter in between the doors as well as for drivers driving by the rig. Thanks
Interesting tour around the Tower Ladder, very different from a European point of view. There are some things which I will probably never understand on American Tower Ladders like this one. Roughly two to three decades ago Mid-Mount Tower Ladders were purchased by some departments over here due to the lower vehicle height while driving, but they never got popular for a simple reason: the large overhang at the rear, which additionally was is the blind spot for the driver. To counteract the actual problem we now go for low-entry cabs with a classic rear-mount Tower Ladder instead. But the overhang on the American Mid-Mounts is just massive ... how do you manage slopes at driveways or hills? Also the truck it enormous as well; Wouldn't make it through many downtown roads here. Also the compartments seem pretty empty, with all that empty space in between. You do carry more equipment on Aerials than we do, but there's still so much un-used space. Not a fan of the outrigger system to be honest. The 90° outriggers require so much space; We have them on Aerials from Bronto and Rosenbauer, while Magirus goes for low-extending outriggers which can also underride parked vehicles This is a standard 105' rear-mount Tower Ladder over here in Germany: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ENiLsGpV48I.html
i know im really late, but imma answer your questions. about the slopes and the hills, the engines on american tower ladders are usually stronger than german ones. the compartments being empty, that's so more equipment can be taken up in the air. let's say that they wanted to get a saw on the roof. there's a lot of room to do that. the outriggers do go kinda big, kinda unnecessarily. you should check out tower 45's manufacturer, pierce manufacturing. www.piercemfg.com/
@@yourneighborhoodwierdo8349 I think he meant the length of the overhang. When the front of the truck starts up the hill the rear could possibly actually hit the tarmac.
@@yourneighborhoodwierdo8349 no problem, as I didn't get any notification I'm late as well :D I don't see the incline of the road as problem, but the approach angle as it seems like the overhanging rear of the truck would get in contact with the road surface pretty quick. Don't quite get your point with " the compartments being empty, that's so more equipment can be taken up in the air." ... why not use the available compartment space to get more equipment stored on the truck? Seems like very little equipment for quite some available space. Compare that to a German apparatus ... it's like the next level tetris with no inch wasted.
Awesome videos with great information! It seems that South Metro is doing a great bit of hiring! This is encouraging being that I am currently towards the end of my Marine Corps enlistment and driven to become a firefighter with south metro when I come off active duty. Will there be more academies in 2020? Vague question I know, but would love to hear back from you guys!
A " truck" is a broad term for a ladder company. There are several variations to "trucks" there is a tower ladder, ladder tower, Straight stick as well as some other uncommon styles but then it gets even more confusing when you talk about the way are mounted. The fire service just kind of calls anything with a bucket a tower ladder which is fine. But if you talk to a dealership and you say Tower ladder then you would be looking at something completely different then a ladder tower. Its a mess, I know.
my one question in some areas with these massive 2k gpm pumps is that will even your largest municipal water company be able to supply that and how many intakes and hydrants need to be tapped into to provide such a volume of water. Mostly its rarely necessary but it seems this is the norm even tho if you do the math barring u have access to waterfront lake etc. Its just not needed. and most residential fires rarely require that much volume. Thoughts?
Absolutely beautiful rig, but I got to say that is a tall order for a crew of 3. Truck ops, engine ops, rescue ops and ems. I just think that's a heavy load for 3 people.
I heard it would go only 90 feet high, not that bad I guess; Sure people with height issues won't like it, but among Aerials this isn't one of the high ones ^^
He said "DC" I believe is in charge of stabilization...I assume he doesn't mean District chief, or division chief, so I'm not familiar with his meaning of that term, I would assume he means the Firefighter riding in the back but does anyone know what that means
@@SouthMetroFireRescuePIO That makes So much more sense now thanks, Also I noticed the medical equipment is kept in the cab itself, assuming that the tower is ALS staffed with a Firefighter-Paramedic and that the rest of your departments Engines and Towers are the same is that standard on all your rigs, the EMS compartment being in the cab itself?
@@SouthMetroFireRescuePIO Thanks for the response! That's what I thought once I saw the door swing open and bounce off of it a second later. They remind me of Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Attaching a specific length of chain or rope for each ground pad landing would help position it the perfect distance from the truck every time without measuring or adjusting.
@@taeyonghasmejungshook3424 onyl 90 feet? Wow that's ... well ... interesting; I thought it would reach at least 100 feet; On the same size of truck chassis we'd usually have a 170 Aerial here, some manufacturers also offer 200' Ladders on that size of truck, but here we don't have anything between 170 and 300 feet of height
@@SouthMetroFireRescuePIO Thanks for the response! I imagined there would be good reason but still I think I looks kind of goofy. Couldn't they of put a smaller door on there so you'd be more likely to remember what you have behind the small door and that way you also have the benefit of being able to specifically refer to it?
