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SF Fire famously still uses old growth for their wooden ladders. https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252 https://

• buzzerbetrayed 3y ago
  My initial reaction to your comment was "Why are they using wood ladders at all?". Luckily I clicked and it's the first question answered in the article: > Wood is resilient in ways which aluminum—now standard for fire department ladders—can't even compare. "You know if you take an empty coke can and bend it three or four times and it tears really easy? That's what aluminum ladders will do," Braun says. "They have a seven to eight year lifespan, after which they need to be replaced." > Wooden ladders, on the other hand, can last indefinitely. "You can stress wood right up to its failure point a million times; as long as you don't go beyond that, it will come right back to where it was. They can be involved in a fire for a pretty long time; after that, it's just a matter of sanding off the top coat of material then inspecting the wood. If it's good we'll re-oil it, revarnish it, and put it back in service."
• mikysco 3y ago
  Loved reading this. Here's an archived version that still has the photos: https://web.archive.org/web/20140713012712/https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252 https://web.archive.org/web/20140713012712/https://gizmodo.c...