An online video sensation sees a firefighter climbing up a ladder against the clock, in an impressive fifteen seconds!  Even by the demanding standards of fitness and speed required of most firefighters, this guy really stands out.  The video is titled ‘This firefighter can climb ladders faster than you can fall off one’ and as you can see from the video, the definition of climbing the ladder also includes getting it off the truck, running it to the building, setting it up and then climbing up it.  When you consider that’s all done in fifteen seconds, you start to think that maybe the title of the video isn’t over-hyped, but perhaps he really is faster up a ladder than most people falling down?  We wouldn’t suggest falling off a ladder to test this theory though!  However, one commentator does suggest that actually, they have fallen off a ladder faster, so perhaps we’ll take their word for it.  Either way, it is still incredible that those two firefighters, working together, could be rescuing someone from a burning building less than thirty seconds after arriving on the scene: That’s what you want from the emergency services.

Ladders That Save Lives

In a recent sad tale of an elderly woman suffering a heart attack, we see a great example of the emergency services working together for the same goal and making excellent use of firefighters’ versatile ladder equipment.  The paramedics had stabilised seventy-eight year old Joan Smith, from Goole inYorkshire, enough for her to be moved downstairs to the ambulance, but every time she was tilted on the stretcher, her heart stopped.  Joan was eventually transferred to the ambulance after the fire service was called in to help.  They lifted her through the bedroom window and onto the aerial ladder platform, thereby keeping her level the whole time and preventing her heart from stopping again.  Joan was receiving treatment at the time of writing and must be very grateful to the emergency services for working together so well.