Ask Media Productions created this report on the San Francisco Fire Department’s unique ladder shop. While most cities have moved on to lighter, less-expensive aluminum ladders, San Francisco’s tight, windy streets lined with electric bus-lines demand sturdy, non-conductive douglas-fir. That wood is given 15 years to age in the ladder shop before it’s shaped into planks and rungs and can be maintained for decades afterwards – the Department’s oldest ladder still in use was originally built in 1918.
