Guernsey Press

Access all areas firefighting here

A NEW turntable ladder means access all areas firefighting for the Guernsey Fire & Rescue Service.

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(Picture by Adrian Miller, 26338120)

Like its predecessor, the new ladder is capable of reaching a maximum height of 32 metres above ground level however, it has the added capability of being able to reach down over an elevated obstruction, thanks to the addition of an articulated ‘knuckle’ type of pivot on the highest section of the ladder.

‘Imagine there is a fire on a double-pitched building, the old ladder could reach the height but would be unable to traverse the building to reach someone who may be in the valley of the roof. The new ladder enables us to do just do that – we can now go higher and lower which means that we can access a lot more areas than were previously possible,’ said chief fire officer Jon Le Page.

Technological advances are apparent throughout.

The cage at the top of the ladder is now fitted with a monitor so that a hose jet can be operated remotely on the ground.

‘You may remember the photograph of the firefighter in the cage over the fire at the recycling centre off Bulwer Avenue. Well, we don’t need to do that any more. The old ladder meant the cage had to be manned to operate the monitor, now it can be done from the ground.’

Built by Emergency One UK, director, Alistair Bell said: ‘We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to provide Guernsey Fire & Rescue Service with their new Emergency One/Magirus M32 L-AS nb turntable ladder. The appliance of their choice is undoubtedly the best in class aerial appliance on the market and it will serve the community of Guernsey for many years to come. It has been a pleasure collaborating with Jon on this exciting project to develop the end product, which features a vast amount of innovative technologies.’

Mr Le Page added: ‘We are very happy to have this new ladder, the previous one was outdated and in need of repair more and more often. The fact that we have this increases our capabilities and although the final bill has not been finalised, we are very confident it will be under the £700,000 budget from P&R and is ahead of schedule which are the two main things for a project as far as I’m aware.’