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My fire station would include a slide.

a "show pole" that leads to nowhere? yeahhhhhh, it's being used for something else

When I was a kid (in the 1970s) I got to slide down a fire pole, and they had a safety cover on the floor, that only opened when there was enough weight on the pole to trigger it.

Using the Bat Pole, Batman and Robin shaved precious seconds off their response time as well.

I was going to post that of course they were a thing, but this turned out to be a much more involved story, with far more information, than I was expecting. Fascinating--thanks!!

I've half grown up in fire stations (one of my parents is a fire captain), so I can confirm: fire poles are real, and they are really fun to slide down. But I almost fell down the hole when I was little, so they scare me a bit

I'm just imagining the guy having to slide down a wooden pole without gloves. The pain is great.

2:45 He's enjoying that waaay too much...

My only question is what were the two fire fighters doing in the hay loft? just the two of them...

I've been in fire stations that had slides like a child's playground slide, except it was copper coated.

When I was a new EMT I was stationed at a firehouse with a fire pole. The firehouse was from the very early 1900's and basically the pole was just used for show more than anything. Only the senior firefighters were allowed to go down it while prospect firefighters, probationary firefighters and newbie EMT's had to take the stair. It really defeats the cause when you have to wait for the newbie firefighter to get his gear on and get in the truck, not to mention that if the line to the pole bottlenecks you could be down the stairs before the whole crew is down anyway.

Literally every surrounding town here where I live has a pole.

They should put fire poles in skyscrapers so you don't have to wait for the elevator to go back down.

I had an aunt and uncle that lived in an old fire station and they had a fire pole in the corner of their kitchen.

Montreal Fire Dept has 68 stations and the vast majority of them have one or more poles. Even the newly built stations have poles. Only some of the smaller stations built on 1 level dont have them.

I've toured a fire station in a dense city outside of the US. It had 7 floors and the poles used are tiered. Firefighters drops to a locker room where all their basic fire protection gears are laid out and hanged between the first pole to the second. Then they drop into the garage fully dressed.

Are stripper poles a real thing? I'm going to have to do some research... I'll start a go fund me

Fireman Sam always uses the fire Pole in the childrens TV show "Fireman Sam" A very popular stop motion animated cartoon in the 1990's in the UK

My local station has 2 poles to speed things up A LOT

Took a trip to the fire station in elementary school. Totally slid down the pole.

I once heard that a call came in during the night at a San Francisco firehouse and one unfortunate fireman had forgotten to bring up her bunker boots at bedtime. So when she slid down the pole, her shorts rolled up and the brass pole then yanked out her testicles as she came puttering slowly down the fire pole. In the morning she filed an injury report that became the funniest topic of discussion at morning roll call for a whole week while the injured member was absent on a medical leave. Firefighting is an honorable yet dangerous profession. They are real heroes in my book.

I always wanted to have one in my house for fun as a child

I fell down on a flight of spiral stairs as a kid. Damn that sucks....

When I was a kid I didn't think fire stations had any stairs. Thought they had to climb up the pole.

Spiral stairs were actually to stop horses from going upstairs, because the first floor was their "box" and they weren't tyed to a pole, because untying them or getting them out if their box would take too much time. I knew that before watching the video, I just watched it to see if they know it too, but obviously they didn't.

Weak people & their safety regulations are always interfering with great things. Just put a ring of LEDs around the fire pole hole, that will stay on, even if main power is out, like they have their own emergency solar battery system. The whole station should have a similar system. There! Problem solved.

in the late 70's we went on a school field trip to the fire station. There was a fire pole at that station. There was no cover, as I have seen other people post. The entire class of 2nd or 3rd graders got to slide down the pole. I am certain it would not be allowed today.

When i was a kid and before they built the newer, larger firehouse, the old firehouse had a brass pole. It also had a 2 door trap door that enclosed the pole that they opened up with a rope. Usually the first fireman opened it up and was the last to go down. They also had a room where they hung the wet hoses, after they returned. Its been over 40 years ago, when i was 6 or 7 when we visited as a class, so i don't remember the whole trip. But u do remember that pole, cuz i was scared of heights and didn't go near it when we took a trip upstairs.

Horses going up stairs and getting stuck is a serious issue. I had one of ours invite itself up stairs and inside the house and it was a massive job to get the daft thing out and we only had 3 stairs...

Where I live in the New Orleans area, all the fire stations were flooded by Katrina. All were completely rebuilt, except one, that had a pole due to second floor living quarters. Now all of them are built w/ second floor living quarters and a pole, due to the flood threat. Oh, and I trained at the original station.

*Pause at **2:55** and look at that guys face for 10 seconds.*

I live in the netherlands and here fire poles aren't used. But I was told that in fire stations where the fire fighters sleep and keep their gear on the second floor there are always 2 stair cases, one up only and one down only. So that somebody who was working on vehicle maintainance on the first floor when the alarm sounds and needs to get to the 2nd floor to get in gear never runs into his colegues already coming down.

There are a lot of comments here about strippers and poles. A stripper pole tends to be made of steel and is 45 mm or 50 mm (1.77 in to 1.97 in) in diameter. A fire pole tends to be made of brass and is typically 3 in (76.2 mm) in diameter. It would seem that the narrower steel pole is better for dancing and the wider brass pole is better for sliding down 6 m (19 feet) or more.

tl:dr yes

Extra bonus fact; "Spiral" staircases are not actually a spiral, They are Helix shaped. A spiral gets wider as it progresses like a traditional conch seashell and the DNA strand is known as the "double helix" as it is two lines in the shape of said staircase.

the real reason spiral staricases exist was that if it rotated to the right, a right armed defender can easily defend (exposing not much more than his arm) against a presumably right-handed attacker, who would have to expose nearly his entirety in order to get a proper saber/sword swing

In the town where I grew up the main fire station had two stories and a fire pole. The station was built around the 1890's and had a brass pole and yes they used it. There was a big donut shaped cushion at the bottom. They also had a dalmatian. But the most interesting thing is they retained every fire apparatus they ever had so they had a steam powered pump from the 1890's and another one from around 1905, and fire trucks from 1912, 1926, 1939 and 1955. They added other fire trucks after our family moved away. They kept the older ones in a garage behind the fire house. We had a town ordinance that required all departments to keep all old equipment in reserve and to maintain them so we had all kinds of interesting vehicles. In one town near us they didn't have a pole, they had a slide. It was exactly like a children's playground slide and went from the third floor which was where the bedrooms were right to the garage. They had a second floor with the kitchen and dining area and you would get onto the slide from there. I visited it once when I was in the boy scouts. At the time it was the only fire slide in the state but I have heard other stations added them.

In the largest of several fire houses I was assigned to, we did indeed have a pole from the bunkroom second floor to the main floor. It was very useful.

Under new standards in America the fire pole is no longer allowed to be used in fire stations due to injuries.

horses in fire stations absolutely tried to climb up normal staircases. They could not be tied up and they could not be closed in their stalls because they were trained to walk to their specific places when the fire alarms went off. Fire alarm would sound, horses would take their places, they'd be hitched up with quick-release halters that hung from the ceiling, and away they'd go.

Am I the only person who has thought of them using a slide? Even a spiral slide?

Adelaide central MFS station still has a fire pole that is used

My dad was a fireman. When we were children, my brothers and spent many weekends hanging out at the fire station - and spent hours running up the stairs and sliding down the very real and fully functioning pole. It was great fun for kids. As adults, both of my brothers followed in Dad’s footsteps and became firemen.

My uncle was a station captain and every one of his nephews and nieces got to slide down the pole of his station; a rare treat for kids growing up in the early 60's.

Taiwan doesn't have fire poles. Probably because of the high population density, the fire trucks are never far from their destinations. One time some tofu-brain wanted to clean a grave and set fire to the cemetery next to my house (during the dry season, no doubt.) The firemen showed up in just a minute or two wearing the pants, but "wife beater" cotton shirts. They assessed the situation and opened a compartment on the side of the truck and put on the rest of their gear in seconds. There's a "hydrant" in the middle of my lane. It's two round, flip-open lids. The shallow one has a hose connection and the deeper one has a hex-nut at the bottom where they use a T-shaped thing with a hex socket on it to turn the water on. Kinda neat. I guess it's equidistant to go any direction and easier to lay the pipe down the middle, since storm drains/gutters go down the sides.

Before i watch the video...yes they are a thing...my mother in law works driving a bus for the forestry firefighters...she drives around the state grabbing every pair of hands they can get...when she showes up to some stations they call in everyone on their days off to help...some can take the fire rigs but most have to pile into the bus after suiting up and sliding down the pole...they have them because the rigs are so big that they need a tall building so they can fit them in...but that makes the stairs realy slow and someone could injure themselves running down them...the pole makes it to where they can get down from the 3rd floor in less than 4 seconds

Momentarily, pre-bearded Simon fooled me into thinking this was someone else. 🤣

My local fire station had a slide.

Horses get out of stalls. Horses can untie themselves (yes, yes they can). It depends on the horse. I have personally witnessed two goats and a *cow* get up the stairs into the loft of a barn because they were spooked and attempting to flee but the access to the main doors (which were shut) was blocked by machinery. Kind of like they would be in a fire house. Just because it seems unlikely or silly or came from people from the previous century doesn't mean it didn't happen. You are no smarter than they were, you just have fancier tools.

That's all good and well, but where are strippers going in such a hurry that warrants them needing a pole?

I was very interested in this video being a retired firefighter. In my department we had one station that had a fire pole, lots of fun to slide down. In the next city from us they had a slide instead. I wish you had covered that too. I really enjoy your videos.

The one-story fire station across from my work is being torn down and replaced with a three-story facility, complete with a three-story fire pole. I told them to rig a motion-activated camera so they can always record bad landings for posterity.

As an ex fireman, we certainly had one, but it wasn't used since the 2000s because of insurance safety reasons. Though It wasn't a mere hole in the floor. It had a series of panels blocking the hole around the pole until downwards force was put on the pole itself, The panels were there to prevent you from falling down the hole accidentally. They'd rest in a horizontal position, then you'd jump on the pole, the panels would fall down, you'd slide through, and when you let go, the panels would raise back up to horizontal again.

Do firemen ever think to themselves "To the Bat Cave, Robin"?

Sure, make fun of the guys whose job it is to save your burning house. Brilliant.

Always called them a ‘pole drop’ in my Brigade. The old 1938 Middlesbrough station had a beauty. I still remember firefighters from other stations looking down the drop when we had a call early in the mornings. Some would take the stairs instead. They did reduce our call out times though.

I just re-watched the Franklin episode. It's arguably the best tifo episode ever. [and I *loved* the "radio voice" for quotations.]

Ultimate alternative: Slides! Can be straight, tunnel-style, spiral...so many different slides to choose from.

LA city fire is going to be building 4 new stations and all 4 will include working poles. My station in Hollywood has 4 poles and he forgot to mention about polishing them that's a very important part of the history.

My station has poles. Brand new building (Built in 2016) and the poles aren't just for show. I've used them plenty of times for varying reasons from night calls to getting to the area it leads to faster to just using it because it's fun! Most of the crews prefer the spiral stairs though.

Back in the 1800s fire companies were actual private companies and not public entities. Any speed advantage was needed because the first company to arrive at the fire after the alarm was pulled got paid. I don't know if there was any pay for coming in second.

Short version: Yes, they were developed for firehouses where the bunk room was above the garage. They did make it faster for the men to get to the trucks... But firemen were getting hurt falling off the poles... so they are now just about completely phased out. Just not worth the appx 30 seconds they saved.

My local forestation has a pole, it has been updated with a basket though. As a kid during one of their open houses I climbed up it and came out in the bedroom.

I like the idea of one person's comment about having a slide. That would be safer than a pole but not sure if it would save enough time over going down steps

When I took a kindergarten class on a tour of a fire station in Germany it had a functioning fire pole, complete with shock absorber at the bottom. Though they didn't let any of us go upstairs and slide down the pole, we did lift some of the kids up to grab the pole a few feet above the ground and let them slide to the bottom.

I wish my apartment had a fireman's pole. That'd be a fun and deadly way to get to my car in the morning.

Firefighters love the pole. EMBRACE THE POLE!

I was with my daughter on a class field trip to a fire station here in Indiana back in the 1980's when the alarm sounded. We saw the firemen come quickly down the fire pole.

an entire floor dedicated for hay bale storage? that's ironic!

Made my own fire pole as a kid made from scaffolding poles inside an abandoned house where we axed a hole in the upstairs floor and just had 2 people holding the pole while one of us slid down.

Im a fireman, we have 6 firehouses in our city. At one time there were poles in all of them, but now most of them have been removed and their openings bolted shut. The newest 2-story firehouse wasnt even built with a pole. There is only one firehouse left with an operational pole and even still, we usually take the stairs.

Another reason they are used less now is fumes from the engines.

I know for a fact, that fire poles are preferred over stairs (while often if not always included ) purly for OH&S reasons in Australia for multi story buildings, why? because there are less injuries using the pole than rushing down stairs and that is why many stations in city, and interurban stations they have either returned the poles, or retro fitted them into the stations

In Germany most Fire stations still have poles. Most of the time they are in some form of closet to prevent you from falling down.

*"WE GOT ONE!"* 🔔🚨 *"Our first call."* 🏃🏻‍♂️

The thing that firemen hate most is to get to the scene of a fire and find a police officer holding a fire extinguisher but no fire.

why not combine the spiral stairs and the fire pole: spiral slide. Safer, about as fast and no pile ups or missteps.

My fire department just got a new huge pole installed

2:53 I'm the only one that finds the black dude's smile a bit creepy

In Germany we have doors in front of the slides, so it is way more difficult to fell down by accident.

Are Polish Firemen Really a Thing?

I went to George Mason College in 1960 when I graduated from high school. The college in those days was housed in a single building that had been an old elementary school at Bailey's Cross Roads. It was behind the volunteer fire station. The student body used the fire house as their student union. The Fire House had a fire pole that was used when the volunteer firemen were called out. But students were not allowed near it. I worked as a janitor for the fire house. Fire poles were very real then.

Happiness is sliding down a fire mans pole

I love your videos

Most NYC firehouses have poles and I have slid the pole from the hose tower on the roof to the 3rd floor, then the next pole to the 2nd floor, then the next pole from the 2nd floor to the apparatus floor and still beat the guys who were coming out of the kitchen etc on the apparatus floor to the rig LOL

I think one of the stations near me has one, but the other doesn't. I figured it was a case of "they were a thing but now aren't or mostly aren't", heh. It's one of those things that you just can't really make up, but came to be, you know?

The hilarious part about having a fire pole is that it creates a ridiculous fire hazard. If the station were to catch fire, flames could easily spread to the above floors through said hole. In building construction, every hole drilled vertically for venting/electrical/whatever has to be caulked with a special "fire-stop" compound after the fact. Imagine having a 3-4 foot wide hole going through each floor with a single path. Not to mention the first alleged pole was made out of wood lmao.

Many new firestation's now don't have a pole because they are ridiculously expensive. The safety rules that come with them are very strict. they need to be a room be itself and and a bunch of other restrictions. Also insurance for the station would be much higher because of a pole. I have heard of some stations installing a slide, same idea, but less regulated, and therefore, cheaper

I feel like every town should have at least 2 fire stations/police stations, and whichever station arrives at an emergency first, gets a bonus.

The fire station I work at, which also serves as a police station and medic station, has a fire pole, but I've never seen it used.

"Embrace the pole!"

Before watching the video I just want to answer shortly, having worked at a fire department one time in my life and actually using them: Yes these poles exist.

If I had a multi-story house I'd want one of these.

Many fire stations actually use slides now as well.

Probably should have been "are they still a thing." I figured they'd gone the way of firemen hanging on the trucks.

my local fire station used to let kids come in and go down the pole on Halloween

Fire poles have all moved to Gentlemen's Clubs and used for a different reason.

That was most interesting!

"embrace the pole"