So hypothetically after three years of planning and building, a fire district just finished and put into service a 75' quint. Now hypothetically (there are still non-disclosures in place...) nearly in the same dang month, a new facility within said district announces its coming in... with a 110' roof height. Our responsibility is to service the residents and structures of this area, so it is our problem. I assume we will get a mutual aid agreement in place with the closest department that has what we would need, but I'm wondering if a taller ladder is not available for whatever reason, what are the options for accessing the roof from the exterior with (minus angles to simplify) a 35 foot deficit if needed? Figured it was a good topic for *hypothetical* discussion.

It’s really not your problem at the moment.  It’d be no different if you had a 105’ aerial and 30 story buildings.  You’re just not gonna stick the roof on everything.

Our SOG for the first due truck is if you can reach the unit with the aerial, the driver stays and sticks the building.  If you can’t reach the fire floor with the aerial, the driver joins the interior crew to locate the fire and search.

What type of structure is it?

Commercial fulfillment warehouse... hypothetically.

And that makes a lot of sense when you put it in the terms of if a big ole high rise came in, it’s not like we could have a ladder tall enough to get to the the top so interior and stand pipes it is.

What kind of roof is planned for the building? If it’s metal there’s not a whole lot of reason to be on it during a fire.

Obviously it’s going to be sprinklered so what are the real odds of there being anything other then a fire held in check?

Your more likely to have issues with flooding and broken sprinkler heads from forklifts. The industrial buildings in my district handle the repair, clean up and recharging the system themselves. It happens pretty often, we go out for a “water flow” put eyes on it and let them handle it.

Have the fire chief, chief building official etc. explain the situation to the company and hopefully they will have some type of roof access ladders or stairs built. They should also consider a rooftop standpipe system (dry typically) or exterior rooftop sprinklers depending on what is going to be up there in terms of mechanical equipment and the roof construction.

We only have a few buildings taller than our tower (100') but several of different heights that can't be reached because of set-backs, obstructions and lack of areas to deploy the jacks safely.

If roof access to this one building is of critical concern to you guys, I would try to address it with code and agreements, not depending on being able to use an aerial.

I think it's tough to plan to have an apparatus capable of servicing every kind of structure in your area.

FDNY has 75', 95' Tower Ladders and 100' aerials.  They can probably reach less then half of what they service.

Can building code be amended to force the construction of outside stairs to roof?

I dont think so as they are breaking ground and in a hurry to get this thing built but I think you guys are right with just amending the thinking away from the idea that we've always been able to reach everything within our area before, so this is just the first of probably more to come.

If you’d like, PM me an email address and I can send you our high rise operations manual.  It’s pretty comprehensive and may answer some of your questions.