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The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

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Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#291

Post by pm24601 »

DannyBee wrote: post #226
pm24601 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I can't think of any reason to acclimatize them this way instead of" .... I bet the expert woodmakers doing this job have very good reasons. Reasons that you haven't thought of.. Seriously, these people are experts. They probably know their job, really, really well.

"I bet the expert woodmakers doing this job have very good reasons. Reasons that you haven't thought of.. Seriously, these people are experts. They probably know their job, really, really well." This is just a random appeal to authority. If you would like to be constructive, please be constructive. First, there is one person doing this. Or was. It was Jerry Lee, who recently retired. He did it for 30 years. In fact,…

> When I asked, he said they just didn't need to do it faster.

There is your really good reason.

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#292

Post by jpster »

Gargoyle wrote: post #250
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from NYC, it is somewhat surprising to see such anger directed at fire departments. Here, the FDNY seems universally loved.

The LAFD might be the most admired municipal organization in the city. They have a very difficult range of environments and handle them very well.

From afar it seems the LAPD has a horrible reputation. So the LAFD must seem like saints by comparison.

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#293

Post by function_seven »

maxbond wrote: post #289
function_seven wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as those steps and caps are connected with fiberglass sides, what’s the issue?

At high voltages the electricity may be able to arc between the steps. Electricity will do some pretty incredible things at high voltages. Check out this video of some idiots turning a powerline into a Jacob's ladder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yBTHrXEK4U

That video was awesome.

I'm guessing that the types of ladders SFFD are using aren’t going to be anywhere near power lines of that high a voltage.

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#294

Post by dylan604 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #11

Americans seem to take a lot of pride in their fire brigades - their fire engines are still shiny and polished with more traditional signage and the fire fighters still wear helmets with their traditional shape. In the United Kingdom they wear more simple uniforms and the engines are just a box shape with no bells any more - seems a shame. Usually it's UK the has more ceremony in these kind of things.

They keep the engines shiny for multiple reasons. First, what else are you going to make the rookies do? ;-) Actually, keeping them shinny requires someone to pretty much go over every inch of the truck which is also a great time to do an inspection of the truck. Finding out something needs attention while sitting idle in the station is much better than finding out while out on response.

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#295

Post by rflrob »

arkades wrote: post #228
sbov wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common phenomena, and I'm not sure if there's a general term for it. E.g. people prematurely stop taking antibiotics because they feel better, or people go off their meds because they feel fine, etc.

In biology this would be the red queen phenomenon. Wolves bring down the rabbit numbers, wolves starve, rabbits flourish, wolves flourish, wolves devour rabbits, and so on.

I assume you're getting downvoted because the Red Queen hypothesis actually applies to a scenario where neither wolves nor rabbits change their numbers significantly. Perhaps a better description would be along the lines of: Wolves get better eye sight, so rabbits get better at camouflage, so the wolves get better smell, so rabbits get better at hiding in inaccessible areas, so wolves get thicker coats to dig into the briar patch, etc. This year's model of wolf or rabbit is more fit than last year's model, but is never able to gain a lasting advantage over the wolves.

As the Red Queen said to Alice in Through the Looking Glass, "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#296

Post by LMYahooTFY »

arkis22 wrote: post #266
ellard wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/us/san-francisco-firefigh... You're not wrong, but it's more that they are in a position to help and the city doesn't seem to want to have another organization deal with the homeless. They're not exactly gunning for the role of taking care of the homeless.

That's kind of a silly thing to say given that the government of SF spends hundreds of millions of dollars on the homeless a year.

My immediate reaction is incredulity at the notion a city could spend hundreds of millions on its homeless population and still have a homeless population...

Are there further details/good articles you would be able to provide?

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#297

Post by raldi »

maxbond wrote: post #289
function_seven wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as those steps and caps are connected with fiberglass sides, what’s the issue?

At high voltages the electricity may be able to arc between the steps. Electricity will do some pretty incredible things at high voltages. Check out this video of some idiots turning a powerline into a Jacob's ladder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yBTHrXEK4U

I can't tell what, if anything, they were doing besides filming.

Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand

#298

Post by xeromal »

LMYahooTFY wrote: post #296
arkis22 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of a silly thing to say given that the government of SF spends hundreds of millions of dollars on the homeless a year.

My immediate reaction is incredulity at the notion a city could spend hundreds of millions on its homeless population and still have a homeless population... Are there further details/good articles you would be able to provide?

The common trope in LA and SF is that more and more homeless migrate to the west coast every day due to the services and weather.
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