Of course some departments adopt change faster than others, and some kinds of change are adopted more readily, so it's hard to make any sweeping generalizations.
Only if you didn't read the article.
"There's a city-specific reason why San Francisco has stuck with wood rather than swap over to metals, and the answer lies in looking up. The high-voltage cables and wires that guide the city's (oft-maligned) public transport system Muni, and trolley cars crisscross above nearly every street, mean that ladders made of conductive elements are generally just too dangerous to use."
They're nonconductive fiberglass.
They're stronger than wood, lighter than wood, don't need to be oiled/varnished, don't require cutting down old-growth trees, and aren't susceptible to moisture damage.
You can buy them exhaustively tested, mass produced, in whatever quantities you require for a couple hundred dollars - probably an order of magnitude less than these artisanal wooden ladders.
They're also not being used right next to flames.
Yes, fiberglass can be made that won't buckle under both weight and heat, but not at the same price point as wood.
How about the aluminum cross braces of your fiberglass ladder, how do those hold up in the high heat of a structure fire? What does that do to service life?
From article:
"We had one ladder here that was fully involved in a fire for 25 minutes, and the whole tip of it—six feet—was crispy. It looked like a log you pull out of a campfire," Braun says. "That can't go back in service but we were curious, so we put a new halyard [rope used to hoist ladders] on it for a load test. Even in that condition, it passed."
Did you read the comment you're replying to? I said very specifically "SF does have some good reasons for sticking with their wooden ladders". And note that I said "a somewhat significant factor" NOT "the only factor" or even "the biggest factor".
In fact, I did read the article, and I see nothing that contradicts the suggestion that tradition is "a somewhat significant factor" in their continued use of wooden ladders.
Yes.
> I said "a somewhat significant factor" NOT "the only factor" or even "the biggest factor".
That's true. But even "somewhat significant" isn't justified by the facts.
> SF does have some good reasons for sticking with their wooden ladders
And they have one overwhelming reason: aluminum is not an option because of the overhead muni lines.
So it's possible that tradition has a role, but there's no evidence that it is even "somewhat" significant.
If you're operating under the assumptions that A. all the relevant information is in the article and B. everything in the article can be taken at face value, then I can see how you would arrive at that conclusion. So fair enough. I didn't mention it earlier, but I'm operating from a place of applying additional knowledge and perspective that comes from over a decade as a firefighter.
Anyway, I doubt we'll ever really know for sure. In either case, SFFD do a great job, so mad props to them regardless of what kind of ladders they use.
Doesn't matter. The electric company isn't hanging on the outside of a building that's on fire.