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THE
first aerial ladder in the United States
was invented in 1886. Firefighters, before
the aerial ladder, had to splice ground
ladders together to access upper floors of
the taller buildings. The operation was
not always successful. Daniel Hayes, the
superintendent of steamers with the San
Francisco Fire Department, came up with a
solution with an aerial ladder. It was a
service ladder truck mounted with a
two-section wooden ladder. The bed ladder
of the aerial was raised by cranking a
long screw which forced up the ladder.
Extension of the fly ladder and rotation
of a turn table were also done by hand.
The truck was pulled by two or three
horses.
Hook
& Ladder No. 1 bought one of the Hayes
aerial ladders prior to 1895. (Another
reference dates the purchase ca. 1906. The
latter date was probably in error, because
the apparatus acquired by the city from
the volunteers when the fire department
went fully paid in 1895 listed an aerial
ladder and a Preston service
truck.)
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The
first aerial ladder purchased by the city
was in 1904.
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It was pulled
by two horses and carried 165-feet of ground
ladders, including a 45-foot extension ladder and
two pompier ladders. The aerial ladder had a reach
of 75 feet.
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No.
1 aerial ladder was listed as a
Dahill-Hays aerial ladder in a report by
the National Board of Fire Underwriters,
and the bed ladder was raised
"pneumatically." The name of the aerial
was probably Hayes (spelled with an e),
because Hayes was the only aerial ladder
manufactured at the time. Also, the aerial
ladder was probably not raised
pneumatically, but rather had a
spring-assist to raise the bed ladder.
(Pneumatically-raised ladders had been
tried but never gained popularity because
of a need for special equipment at the
fire station to keep the tanks filled with
compressed air.) LaFrance was
manufacturing the Hayes aerial ladder at
the time and had introduced the
spring-assist bed ladder the previous
year.
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By
1915, Ladder 1 had been replaced with
another aerial truck. Nothing could be
found in the archives detailing the new
truck. The old Hayes aerial was being held
in reserve at the old Station
9.
Ladder
1 was being used in front of central
station to drill in 1926. The fly ladder
was fully extended and the captain began
climbing. A gust of wind struck about the
time the captain reached the top. The
wooden ladder broke and the fire captain
was pitched to his death..
This
incident plus other ladder collapses
across the country sent the manufactures
on a hunt for a stronger material. They
settled on steel to increase the strength
of the ladder.
As
World War II came to a close, Houston
purchased American LaFrance aerial ladder
trucks.
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Several
1945 American LaFrance aerial ladders were
bought to replace both the older aerial
ladders and the downtown city service
trucks.
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Details
of one of the American LaFrance aerials
was shipped to Houston on 2/2/45. It was a
model M535 JOX American LaFrance,
registration No. L2042. The rig probably
was assigned to Central Station, because
all new aerials went to Central at the
time.
The
increased strength of the aerials
permitted ladderpipes on the fly to get
larger volumes of water into upper floors
of taller buildings. Water was fed to a
ladderpipe through a hose run up the
ladder. Ladderpipes on aerial ladders
eventually did away with the water tower.
Although lacking the water flow of the
water tower, a ladderpipe could be put
into play far swifter than the
tower.
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A
large purchase of fire apparatus in 1952,
brought new 100-foot American LaFrance
aerials to fire stations 1 and 2, 85-foot
ladders to stations 1 and 7 and 65-foot
aerials to stations 4 and 9. Pictured is
the American LaFrance steel aerial ladder
assigned to Station 1. It had a
three-section aerial ladder raised
hydraulically.
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The rig
carried over 200 feet of ground ladders, the
longest of which was 35 feet. It had a water tank
and small booster hose for overhauling after a
fire.
The aerials
and service trucks replaced by the new aerials went
to other fire stations ladder trucks and to open
new ladder truck companies.
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About
this time, the city bought some Mack
aerial ladder trucks. Pictured is a Mack
assigned to new Fire Station 28 shortly
after it opened in 1953.
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AMERICAN
LaFrance was the preferred manufacturer
for aerial ladder trucks during the first
one-half century of the paid department.
The Mack aerial near the end of the fifty
years signaled the weaning of the American
LaFrance. American LaFrance had served the
city well. From then on, there were many
different manufacturers that furnished
aerial ladders to the Houston Fire
Department.
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