Based on the following, what was added to a ladder truck to carry firefighters to top floors of a building? Around this time, buildings were becoming taller and firefighters needed improved methods of reaching top stories. Ladders, while effective on lower floors, didn’t reach the higher floors. Soon, ladders were being mounted directly onto fire trucks, and after World War II, these ladders included a bucket on a folding arm which allowed firefighters to reach the vast majority of floors in residential buildings