Heirloom Design at the SFFD Ladder Shop

November 29th, 02010 by Austin Brown

Ask Media Productions created this report on the San Francisco Fire Department’s unique ladder shop. While most cities have moved on to lighter, less-expensive aluminum ladders, San Francisco’s tight, windy streets lined with electric bus-lines demand sturdy, non-conductive douglas-fir. That wood is given 15 years to age in the ladder shop before it’s shaped into planks and rungs and can be maintained for decades afterwards – the Department’s oldest ladder still in use was originally built in 1918.