<story><title>The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chrisseaton</author><text>Americans seem to take a lot of pride in their fire brigades - their fire engines are still shiny and polished with more traditional signage and the fire fighters still wear helmets with their traditional shape.&lt;p&gt;In the United Kingdom they wear more simple uniforms and the engines are just a box shape with no bells any more - seems a shame.&lt;p&gt;Usually it&amp;#x27;s UK the has more ceremony in these kind of things.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eigenvector</author><text>One of the biggest differences between Europe and North America in this regard is that in European cities, emergency vehicles have to be designed to fit a 1000-year-old city in terms of width, turning radius, maximum weight, etc. This leads to a much more compact shape and shorter wheelbase.&lt;p&gt;In North America streets are designed to fit emergency vehicles. You&amp;#x27;re not allowed to build a street so narrow that a fire engine couldn&amp;#x27;t turn around there, for example.</text></comment>
<story><title>The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chrisseaton</author><text>Americans seem to take a lot of pride in their fire brigades - their fire engines are still shiny and polished with more traditional signage and the fire fighters still wear helmets with their traditional shape.&lt;p&gt;In the United Kingdom they wear more simple uniforms and the engines are just a box shape with no bells any more - seems a shame.&lt;p&gt;Usually it&amp;#x27;s UK the has more ceremony in these kind of things.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mrguyorama</author><text>Honestly, from quickly looking at some images of UK firefighters, it seems the difference to me is that their equipment is &lt;i&gt;modern&lt;/i&gt;, an not just in a design sense. Their helmets look better designed to protect the user and their fire engines look like they weren&amp;#x27;t purchased in the 70&amp;#x27;s.&lt;p&gt;So maybe the difference is that in the UK, they don&amp;#x27;t have to use old equipment</text></comment>