New appliances help firefighters to reach new heights

New state-of-the-art firefighting appliances are helping firefighters in Greater Manchester to reach new heights and tackle a range of challenging incidents.

Over the past 18 months, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) has invested more than £2.5m in four new Turn Table Ladder (TTL) appliances.

With a ladder reach ranging between 32m and 42m, they are amongst the highest articulated ladder appliances in use by UK fire and rescue services.

In recent years GMFRS has been working to replace its appliances with new vehicles to ensure it is in the best position possible to tackle a range of incidents and keep people safe.

These new specialist appliances have replaced older aerial appliances and have been delivered to Manchester Central, Stretford, Whitehill, and Bolton Central stations.

Three of the four assets are already being used to respond to incidents in Greater Manchester.

The final appliance at Bolton Central will commence shortly once training is completed.

The TTL appliances have a range of uses at a variety of incidents, including tackling fires involving high rise buildings, allowing firefighters to tackle a fire from above or act as a vantage point for firefighters using handheld jets.

They can also be used while working with Technical Response Units and pump crews to recover casualties from hard-to-reach places or lower or raise casualties safely.

The appliances have already helped combat a number of incidents, some recent examples include:

Large Building Fire Royton – May 16, 2021

Firefighters were called to a large fire involving an abandoned recycling building, measuring approximately 60m by 30m, that contained a large quantity of compressed mixed waste.

Bales of recycling materials outside the building were also on fire.

The crews used hose reels and jets, along with a TTL to tackle the blaze from above.

It was then used to assist firefighters to cut holes at the side of the building from above to extinguish pockets of fires inside.

The TTL enables firefighters to reach further into the affected area to tackle the blaze more effectively.

Large Building Fire Hyde – April 4, 2020

15 fire engines were called to tackle the incident which measured around 300m by 200m.

 The fire involved a range of buildings across the site, some of which were three storeys tall, and the roofs of several were well alight.

Three TTLs were deployed to fight fire from above.

Some of them were then used to bridge onto an adjoining building’s roof to provide safe access and a riser for handheld jets to extinguish deep seated hotspots.

Commercial Building Fire Chinatown – February 28, 2021

GMFRS deployed six fire engines and an Incident Command Unit to the scene to combat a fire in the basement kitchen ducting system in a restaurant.

A TTL was used as an access to the roof and to direct a water jet into ventilation outlets.

GMFRS Assistant County Fire Officer, Dave Keelan, said: “Public safety is our number one priority and these new TTL appliances have already been put to great use by our firefighters to tackle incidents quickly, efficiently and safely.

“GMFRS will continue to invest in our frontline services to ensure our firefighters are equipped with the latest technology and equipment to deliver the most effective response possible.

“Incidents such as the ones highlighted show already why this investment has been so important, allowing us to tackle these fires and keep people safe.”

GMFRS Area Manager, Jon Aspinall, added: “We want to ensure GMFRS is at the forefront of the latest firefighting and rescue technology and these TTLs are just the latest way we are doing this.

“We will continue to demonstrate the focus of our ongoing investment into the communities of Greater Manchester.”

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