Welcome to part two of the first ladder news round up of 2015, where we look at the emergency services on ladders, ladder-related crimes and daring rescues.

Firefighters are often involved in helping people who have fallen from ladders, and they use ladders on a daily basis to rescue people from burning buildings or other risky situations.  In New York firefighters carried out an ice rescue to help a 10-year-old boy who was stuck on ice on a pond in Concrete Plant Park.  One firefighter fell through the ice and was submerged up to his chest in freezing water, but they carried on with the rescue, first throwing a life ring out to the boy and then lowering a ladder onto the ice for the boy to climb across.  Both the boy and firefighter were taken to hospital for treatment.

Firefighters in Dexter, Missouri, also used their ladder to effect a water rescue after a motorist ended up partially submerged in a pond, apparently after swerving to avoid a deer.  The driver had climbed out of the sunroof as the front end of the car sank lower and lower, so firefighters extended their ladder to the car for the driver, Danny Hayes, to climb off the sinking car.  When firefighters asked him why he didn’t swim to the bank, Hayes responded that he did not want to get his new mobile phone wet.  The extrication team pulled the car out of the pond with the help of a tow-truck, but unfortunately for Hayes, the cost to him for extracting his car using the fire service is more than his mobile phone was worth.

Firefighters in Tempe, Arizona, had to use a homeowners’ own ladder to rescue him from the second storey of his house as the first truck on the scene did not have an aerial ladder.  The man was trapped on a balcony after attempting to put out the fire with a small extinguisher.  He was about to jump when the fire service appeared with his ladder and rescued him safely.  He was unhurt, but the fire ripped through the house and up into the attic.

Residents of Burnaby, Canada, can thank the quick thinking of two men for saving the life of 11-year-old Dimitri Ganis after he was trapped on the second floor of the family condo during a fire.  The fire broke out in a hallway closet and blocked Dimitris escape route as well as his fathers route to save him.  The parents, Vivian and George, managed to escape the fire but their son was trapped in another part of the home.  Neighbours rushed in with fire extinguishers but the blaze in the hallway was too fierce and they could not put it out.  Outside the home, a crowd gathered while two neighbours hatched a plan.  The caretaker, Michael Von Hatten, grabbed a ladder and together with another neighbour, leaned it against the building and climbed up to rescue the boy.  Dimitri was taken to hospital and sedated while he is treated for smoke inhalation and first and second degree burns, but his parents are just thankful he is alive.  Their home, however, was completely gutted as firefighters did not receive the emergency call until half an hour after the fire started, giving it enough time to destroy the home before the fire service arrived.

Residents in Northfield Farm Road, Edinburgh, did the same for two men who were trapped in a burning flat in the early hours of the morning on 24 January.  The men were in a first floor flat and could not escape, so residents used a ladder to provide an escape route for the pair.  The fire brigade were alerted to the incident at around 3.30am, but by the time they had arrived the two men had been rescued, so they extinguished the fire and ensured there were no other people trapped in the building.

In Westlake, Los Angeles, residents of a motel rescued themselves from a massive fire on Christmas Day which ripped through the 135 unit building.  Some residents tied bedsheets together and climbed out of the windows, while others create a human ladder, allowing people to climb down from windows and balconies.  Once the fire department arrived they rescued disabled residents and managed to extinguish the fire in under half an hour, but not before 25 units were damaged.

In eastern Illinois three fires in early February saw a total of 16 people rescued by neighbours and police officers.  Seven people in Edwardsville were rescued by police officers after a kitchen fire flooded the apartment building with thick smoke just before midnight.  The residents had fled to the balconies due to the heavy smoke and not being able to use the stairwell to escape, so the police, who were first on the scene, managed to rescue the people trapped on the first floor balconies by boosting one officer up to the balconies who then helped the residents down.  By the time the fire department arrived they were ready to rescue those on the third storey.  The lady in the apartment where the fire started was able to flee the building quickly, and she banged on flat doors as she left in order to alert everyone to the danger.  Had she not done this, the outcome could have been a lot worse.  As it is, no-one was harmed although seven people are now homeless as a result.

As usual, the fire services have been raising money for charity using their ladders, although during the colder months far fewer events take place.  This time we bring you news of one fire brigade in Westbourne, Dorset, who spent seven hours climbing their ladder up to the gallery in the Dolphin Shopping Centre, returning via the escalator and repeating the process.  They were raising money for colleague Andy Culliford, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2011 and requires medication costing £400 a day, which he is currently funding himself.  The crew hoped to raise £40,000 for Andy, the Fire Fighters Charity and motor neurone disease charities through a variety of fundraising activities.

Although we often hear of firefighters using their ladders to raise money or rescue people, we don’t often think of the amount of training needed for people who are using ladders in extremely dangerous situations on a daily basis.  Firefighters in Weld County, Colorado, spent a day just before Christmas working on their ladder bailouts, rapid descent and rescuing other firefighters in danger, among other things.  Each Wednesday, different public safety personnel in the county undergo a series of training exercises designed to test and teach them on survival and rescue techniques.  Learning how to bail out of a window head first onto a ladder and then make your way down is a vitally important thing to do when you are a firefighter.  Fire can change in a split second, so it is important that all firefighters can safely get out of a building quickly, and if that means head-first, then so be it.  Once on the ladder and out of immediate danger, the firefighters must right themselves before continuing the descent, but they must do so very quickly as they are often not alone in bailing out of a window head first.  It sounds pretty terrifying, and certainly goes against all health and safety advice, but if the fire service didn’t do this sort of training we would all be in a lot more danger in a fire situation.

When it comes to ladder thefts, the police issue warnings several times a year to homeowner, urging them not to leave ladders outdoors or otherwise unattended, as ladders are a commonly stolen item.  Stolen ladders can be sold for scrap value, sold to unscrupulous construction firms or used in other crimes such as break ins.  Police in Fairfield, New Jersey, have issued one such warning after a burglary committed using the homeowners own ladder.  Jewellery and cash were taken from the home after the burglars climbed through a second storey window.  Another burglary in the area is thought to have been committed using a ladder stolen from a nearby construction site, so it’s not just domestic ladder users that need to keep their equipment secure.

In Toronto, Canada, a homeowners ladder was used by a peeping tom to see into their home.  The man had fled the scene before officers arrived, but was caught on CCTV.  Police in Tacoma, Washington, arrested a man for using his own ladder to watch his neighbour showering.  The woman was in the shower when her husband noticed someone looking into the window of the second storey bathroom.  When he went downstairs he found their neighbour, Eli Junior Eli in their yard.  Eli fled the scene, dumping the ladder in a nearby driveway but police found and arrested him.  He initially claimed he had been invited over, but admitted to peeping while in custody.

Burglars in Stoke-on-Trent used a stolen ladder to take alcohol from a home early in January.  One can only assume that the concept of a ‘dry-athlon’ was too much for the criminals to bear.

Police officers in Butte, Montana, pursued a truck believed to have been involved in a ladder theft late in December.  The ladder was retrieved after it fell from the truck onto the road, and the three men inside were all arrested.  The driver actually switched places with a passenger during the risky pursuit in order to try and escape further charges, but the police were not to be deceived and saw through the ruse.

The police don’t routinely have to use ladders to do their job, much less to keep hold of suspects, but one pair on duty on the Isle of Man had to climb a dock ladder with a handcuffed suspect after he fled from custody and jumped into the harbour at Ramsey.  Constable Saskia Baxter was watching the handcuffed suspect while her colleague searched his car, when he suddenly ran towards the harbour and jumped into the water.  Knowing the water was freezing cold, and the man was fully clothed and handcuffed, she ran after him and climbed down the quayside ladder.  Confident her colleague had followed her, Constable Baxter went into the water and got hold of the suspect.  Her colleague Constable Mark Kerruish followed her into the water and pulled the man back up the ladder, as he could not climb it with handcuffs on.  Police officers are trained in water rescues, but not usually to rescue someone who is also handcuffed.  Their Sergeant Vinny Lund praised their actions and quick thinking.

Now for a more heartwarming tale of a man rescuing his own dog from a ten foot deep hole in a park in Stockport.  51-year-old Craig Bennett was walking Roxy, his American Bulldog on Heaton Norris Recreation Ground when she suddenly disappeared.  He could still see his two other dogs, but Roxy was nowhere around.  After an hour of searching he eventually found her at the bottom of a hole where she was trapped.  He ran to his workplace, which luckily was nearby, and borrowed a set of ladders that he used to climb down into the hole and pull his dog to safety.  The council was not aware of the hole, and Mr Bennett has since reported it, although he feels the temporary fencing is not enough to stop a child falling in.  The council believe the hole was dug by treasure hunters, and are working to fill it in.