Fire Engines Photos

Interesting to see SPDP still carrying a hook ladder as standard eqipment on every first response pumper/ambulance, after we have heard so many comments on this site bemoaning their demise in the UK.

The Paris service invented the hook ladder (which is still called a "pompier ladder" in the US) in the mid 1800s, and it is still being used very frequently at all kinds of incidents.

It is especially very handy in courtyards and at buildings with balconies, both of which are very common in Paris. Fortunately, the SPDP members, being military recruits, are an unusually youthful and very physically fit force, and pretty fearless too!

Added by Rob Johnson on 25 July 2013.

Regularly still read about hook ladder rescues being carried out by the BSPP, where citizens are trapped on upper floors in ancient courtyard apartment buildings - and other ladders simply cannot be positioned in the available space.

Added by Rob Johnson on 22 March 2018.

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