Pole Drops

[Rory-495]

I find a lot of the middlesex stations in LFB have an irritating length pole drop. Because they're so short just as you reach a good speed you're at the bottom whereas on a bigger pole you speed up and slow down nicely!

Should be a simple matter of being a good boy and slowing down, but 4am on an unfamiliar station results in me flying way too fast into the bay floor!

[Bazza1946]

The former station at Southport (now Merseyside) was started to be built in 1938, it was intended to be a two storey building but because of the outbreak of WW2 the second floor over the appliance room wasn't added until the 1950s. Meanwhile, as it was a joint Police/Fire Service the fire crews were accommodated in the adjacent police station. A pole drop was fitted from the third floor from an external balcony to the station yard below. Imagine using that  on a freezing January morning at 0300hrs. Good thing there was no Elf and Safety then ! The pole was removed and refitted in the new extension when built but the balcony existed until recently and can be seen to the left and at the rear of the tower (which still exists). The station was demolished and a new one built on the same footprint 

[Healdav]

I was just thinking on the elf and wotsit front. Evacuation of aircraft is done by chute, several peo0ple at a time, and all as close to one another as possible. Are there any records of deaths and injuries. Should Elf and.... have something to say? Perhaps do away with chutes and wait for a mobile staircase to arrive?

[Rory-495]

I'm sure there could be injuries on a chute, but I'd rather risk that than being stuck on a burning airliner

Similarly to chutes, I'm sure there are examples in the USA of slides on stations instead of poles

[Baldalot]

I stood by at Clapham on many occasions. They were supposed to have the longest single pole drop in the LFB South of the river. From the level above the appliance bays to the bay floor was about one and a half times that of the average height to a first floor and you could get up a fair head of steam and some wicked friction burns.

It took being properly switched on to negotiate the double drop from the dormitory as you would open the pole house doors in the dorm, step on to the top pole, drop to the floor below, turn and take one decent pace to the second pole and arrive in the appliance bay with a wallop.

On one occasion that I heard of, a guy who had transferred in to Clapham had been woken by the bells, used the first pole and overlooked the fact that he had a second, much longer drop to negotiate. In his not-yet-fully-alert state, he hit the first mat and went to walk to his assigned machine. He simply stepped into the pole hole that led him, gravity driven, to the appliance bay floor without touching the pole.  😱

He was taken away by ambulance and he eventually healed sufficiently well to return to work.

[E119]

Having seen aircraft evaluation chutes mentioned in a previous post on this thread, I did see this about 5 seconds in on a video about Bristol Airport Fire Service. Any fire stations got these chutes installed, can't say I've ever seen them anywhere.