Local company celebrates 15 years of providing firefighter peace of mind

Steve Speer, Jim Richardson and Chuck Lissow work as a team to load an extension ladder on to a hydraulic lift which places it on top of the fire truck. Photograph by Walter Horylev.

Steve Speer, a Parma resident and president of Fire Service Safety Testing Company, adjusts the load on a hydraulic unit to simulate 1,000 pounds of stress to test the dogs on a Churchville Fire Department ladder. The dogs are kept under stress for one minute. (Roof hooks are tested in a similar manner). It's all part of a comprehensive test of all the ladders in the fire department and one every fire ladder in the country must undergo once per year. In addition to load tests, each ladder's components (rungs, nuts, bolts and welds) are visually inspected and rungs are checked for burrs. Repairs are made on site and all joints are lubed to complete the task. Speer has been in the business of inspecting and repairing ground fire ladders for 15 years. His group, which includes seven ladder technicians, can check about 30 ladders per day and they cover fire departments throughout New York state. "We've tested over 12,000 fire ladders and only around 25 have failed, mostly because of accidental damage that occurred during emergency fire department operations," Speer said. Photograph by Walter Horylev.

While Chuck Lissow records data, Jim Richardson, the other ladder technician, looks on while a 35 foot extension ladder from Churchville's Pumper 424 undergoes a five minute load test, where 500 pounds of weight are placed in the exact center of the ladder. Long ladders undergo a 350 pound preload test. The ladder is leveled and supported on a stand at the last rung of each end. The deflection of the rails is measured after the weight is removed to determine whether the ladder passes the test. Photograph by Walter Horylev.

Local company celebrates 15 years of providing firefighter peace of mind

When firefighters are rushing into a burning building, it's a combination of equipment and training that helps them perform their risky tasks. When it comes to equipment, such as safe ladders, many of the local fire companies know they can rely on Steven Speer and Fire Service Safety Testing, Inc. (FSST) which has been quietly providing ladder service across New York state for the past 15 years.

"We perform National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) testing," Speer said. "Annually, we go to the various departments and test the ground ladders."

Speer said it is as important to check ladders that are used regularly as it is to check those that have been attached to the trucks and haven't been called into action in several months or even years. "You might not think that ladders that haven't been used need to be tested but they have been riding around on the trucks being exposed to the weather and road grime as well as the constant vibration," he said. "The ladders have mechanical parts that need to be kept clean, and tested, to make sure they are in working order."

What can go wrong with a ladder? Pulleys might not turn; roof hooks can get gummed up; halyard ropes can rot; and riding on the truck can corrode the metal, Speer said. Ladders need to be tested on an annual basis, or more often if they have been structurally compromised.

After having been around firemen since he was a toddler, Speer said it was only natural that as an adult he would volunteer at the local fire department. He also took a turn at being a career firefighter.

Speer's reputation among the fire fighting community is enhanced, he said, because he is a firefighter so he knows what it takes to be safe when climbing a ladder. But, he said testing isn't enough. "We test, label and repair the ladders," he said. "We don't give you a list of to-do's and walk away."

FSST, located in Hilton, was started by Speer when he was asked if the ladders had been tested at the fire department where he was volunteering. "The seed for Fire Service Safety Testing was sown then," he said. After researching the NFPA and meeting with fire department manufacturers, ladder manufacturers, he was ready for the next phase - building the equipment he would need to test ladders. "I inherited a welder from my wife's grandfather, learned to weld from a friend, and began building equipment in our garage."

Larry Vaughan, Brockport fire chief said, "the need for a dependable ladder on the fire ground is very important and I feel good, that the Brockport Fire Department was one of Steve's first customers," he said.

From those beginnings, Speer has grown his business to encompass 10 employees. In 2005, they tested 2,279 ladders in 245 fire companies, logging 40,000 miles on their vehicles. "We've traveled from Ohio to Long Island to Lake George to Binghamton. So far, we've tested 12,000 ladders since we started," he said.

Information on FSST can be found at www.testladders.com.