Pierce Aerial failure??????

[UFDFF15]

First off i'm a fan of pierce and not attacking them just informing. I just saw on my local(WHDH ch. 7) news Boston Ladder 15 fully extended off the back of the truck where the last 25ft had bent and the ladder could not me retracted. A crane and flat bed was called to assist. The aerial was cut and the enitre unit has been returned to Pierce. Anyone else have any more details on this?

[ElectricHoser]

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO43864/

Boston firefighters forced to send ladder back

BOSTON -- Boston firefighters have to call in a crane and a flat bed trailer after one of their ladders got stuck.

There was no actual fire, but the ladder automatically extended, got bent about 25 feet from the top and then wouldn't retract.

It was sawed off and sent back to the manufacturer.

[oaattx934]

Wow, I feel sorry for the Lt. that had to call his Batt. Chief.

[lvwrench]

I'm just a little bit baffled by the automatically extended bit. Did anybody there figure out how or why before they sent it back?

[NewJerseyFFII]

Do you think that the Pierce Aerial Ladder from Boston, Mass is a med duty 250 # tip load ladder ?

[FutureFF2010]

Wow, I feel sorry for the Lt. that had to call his Batt. Chief.

There are no Battalions in the BFD, but that's just a minor detail. Still after looking @ another forum, Boston REALLY HATES Pierce, reasons being too many to list here, will list 1

ex.

Fire in North Boston, notorius for NARROW streets, Ladder 1 (early 2000s model AWS on it) sets up their outriggers. The outriggers clear not only the street, but the Sidewalk as well. The outriggers go all the way to the building fronts on BOTH sides.

Mike

[Chauffeur6]

...........

[NewJerseyFFII]

Do I "think"? No, I know it's a 105' Heavy Duty on a Dash chassis with a 500 lb tipload.

How about we let this whole story play out before we start speculating? Yeah right, like THAT'LL happen.

What type of rear mount aerials is the FDNY useing for the past 18 years ,Seagrave 250 # tip load ?The " CHICAGO " Fire Department has Pierce Med Duty 4 section 100' aerial ladders in service with ( 250 # ) tip loads !

[npfd801]

Do you think that the Pierce Aerial Ladder from Boston, Mass is a med duty 250 # tip load ladder ?

I'm pretty confident that the Boston 100 footers from Pierce are the medium duty aerials... However, it really doesn't matter what rating they are.

I won't even begin to speculate as to what happened with the aerial in question.

[Just a new name]

It probably had something to do with the sticker in the middle window. It could have ruined the integrity of the whole truck.

[ChiefSquirrel]

I believe it is the medium duty aerial and I also believe that you can tell the difference by the number of outriggers. 4 outriggers for the heavy duty, 2 outriggers for the medium duty. The picture of the Boston Truck 15 doesn't seem to show any front outriggers - only rear - thus I would say it's a medium duty.

I believe that Chicago uses a combination of medium and heavy duty aerials from Pierce. CFD seems to distinguish between the two by referring to the medium duty aerials as a "Truck Co." and the heavy duty arials as a "Aerial Tower Co."

Again, I'm simply basing my comments on the number of outriggers and on some brief research on the Pierce website.

[toddmcbr]

If this works, here is a photo from the Boston Herald

[oaattx934]

Is that aluminum? My guess looking at that pic is they set the ladder on the building which prevented the ladder trusses from carrying the load but thats kinda a strange hypothesis seeing as how boston has "the best laddermen" lol. No really though this is a sucky situation for everyone involved.

[DeputyMarshal]

One picture isn't much to base an opinion on but from that picture I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't turn out to be operator error rather than equipment failure.

I'm sure we'll hear more about it as time goes on.

[ChiefDog]

More info from EMTBravoNewEngland.com

Found this on another site


On Tuesday February 20 at approximately 2030hrs, Box 14-221 was transmitted for a reported fire at the South End Tennant Housing, 400 Massachusetts Ave. in the South End. Engines 22, 7 & 33 along with Ladder 15, Tower Ladder 17, Rescue 1, District 4 Chief & Division 1 Deputy Chief were assigned. While Ladder 15 was raising the aerial on their 2004 Pierce 105' Rearmount truck, the last fly section suffered a catastrophic failure & caved in upon itself, bending the stick significantly. A crang from Shaughnessey Crane was eventually dispatched to secure the stick so that it could be lowered to the bed. Two engineers from Pierce Fire Apparatus were dispatched from Appleton Wisconsin yesterday to Boston to investigate. Ladders 1, 7 & 18 were taken out-of-service until a complete and thorough inspection was completed. The Boston Herald had a great story & picture on page 2 of today's paper. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRe...ticleid=184327 More information when it becomes available.