Painting The Tips Of Ground Ladders

[x635 4,066]

I'm just curious if anyone paints or puts reflective striping on the (top) tips of their ground ladder, like they do on aerial ladders?

Seems like this would be a simple idea for ground ladder visibilty.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

I know that on TL-57 in Bedford Hills most if not all of the ground ladders have orange painted on the end.

[firemoose827 324]

Its a good idea that helps with the selection and placement of ladders. You can color code them to the size, and than it makes it easier to guide the tip of the ladder to the sill in the dark. Anything that makes the job easier at 2 AM during the raging blizzard is OK by me!

It also helps with the ID of the owner...we have color designations for our equip for each dept, this way we know the blue rings belong to dept 1, the yellow belong to dept 2, etc etc.

[Guest]

AS I RECALL THE BOSTON FD COLOR CODED THE TIPS OF THE LADDERS BY SIZE,(SAME COLORS ON ALL LADDERS ON THE DEPARTMENT) THE COLORING HELPS IN TWO WAYS LENGTH AND VISIBILITY. THEY ALSO STORED THE LADDER BACKWARD WITH THE TIP STICKING OUT, SO THE LENGTH WAS ALWAYS VISIBLE AND WHEN TAKING THE LADDER OUT OF THE RIG THE TIP WAS WALKED AWAY FROM THE BUILDING AND THE BUTT SWUNG INTO THE BUILDING (THINK ABOUT IT)

AS WE KNOW THEY ARE PROBALY THE MOST CELEBRATED PORTABLE LADDER RAISING DEPARTMENT IN AMERICA IF NOT THE WORLD.

[IzzyEng4 427]

I had thought with new aluminum ladders, painting the tips of ground ladders was no longer necessary or NFPA was moving away from it. I am I misinformed?

[Oswegowind 17]

This sounds like a great idea. Paint each length a different color for visibility and for recognition of size. Maybe it should be recommended to the NFPA and made a national standard. So each department is uniform and it won't confuse anyone on mutual aid calls!

[Guest]

according to the 2004 edition of NFPA 1932 section 6.2.4 states "ground ladders shall not be painted except for the top and bottom 460 mm (18 in) of each section for the purposes of identification or visibility." If anyone has a more recent copy they can look it up and correct me but according to that, its kosher. Sounds like a great idea.

[Bunkers 0]

I dont know if anybody noticed but, The August '07 Firehouse magazine has a picture of a FDNY fireman climbing up a portable ladder. The tip of that ladder is painted orange..