[hncommenter13]

Wow, interesting. These [1] are some seriously long aerials.

In San Francisco, fwiw, the SFFD's largest aerial ladder is 100 ft fully extended. This is the mechanical one on the truck.

SFFD trucks also carry a 50-ft wooden ladder, but it's seriously heavy and rarely used, as it requires six firefighters to raise and lower.

For those interested, here's some data on high-rise fires in the US, including the prevalence of sprinklers [2].

[1] http://www.brontoskylift.com/en/hla [2] http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-re...