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S&D is honored to have been asked by Christopher Huston to write a forcible entry drill-of-the-day for FIRE TRAINING TOOLBOX. I first saw saw this done by the guys at REFINED BY FIRE TRAINING, and I immediately fell in love with it.because its something that any fire department can do right in the station with next to no equipment and without having to procure funds for materials or build heavy and expensive props. Of course it is limited in scope, but it will teach new firefighters the basics of conventional forcible entry, and help sink home the lessons of the Gap-Set-Force method for even grizzled veterans. All that is required is: 1.Door hung in a metal frame (although using a wood frame offers its own lessons as well) 2.Roll of duct tape 3.One or two bungee cords 4.Halligan bar 5.Rubber mallet 6.Door wedge 7.Imagination
1 SET-UP
The first thing youll need to do is find a suitable door in your fire station with enough room around it to operate. Its helpful to use a door that has already seen a little wear and tear, so that if it is accidentally scratched or nicked, the chief or station captain doesnt have an MI. If youre concerned about scratches, you can always cover the halligan fork and adz with duct tape. To prep the door, push the latch mechanism into the door, and cover the door-edge with one or two short pieces of duct tape. This will allow the door to move freely around the tool.
2 SET-UP
Next, attach one side of the bungee-cord to the door-handle (when looking at the door as if it were an inward-swinging door) and the other side of the bungee-cord to a fixed object or very heavy object. This may require a little imagination on your part in finding something to connect the bungee-cord to. But you should be able to find some suitable object, even if you have to move something heavy next to the door or extend your bungee with rope or webbing and tie that to a fixed object some distance away from the door.
3 PRELIMINARIES
Tailor your training to the experience-level of your participants. Keep it simple for less experienced personnel. If necessary, break these up into separate training sessions. For instance, covering outward-swinging doors one day, and inward-swinging doors another day. Another idea is to use a right-side opening door for one session, and repeating the same training on a left-side opening for another session. A bonus of this training concept is that its very quickly and easily set-up and broken down. At each evolution, explain and/or demonstrate the method.then walk each participant through the method.then have them demonstrate it back to you without your prompting.
4 PRELIMINARIES
Before you get started, you may want to cover some or all of the following topics: Try before you pry! Checking the door for heat on fire calls. What situations conventional forcible entry is warranted in in your local running orders. Shocking the door. The Gap-Set-Force method. Differences between wood-stop jambs and metal rabbeted jambs. Good communication between the halligan-firefighter and axe-firefighter. Go over commands of Hit, Stop, Drive, and Wedge. Nomenclature of the halligan: pick/pike, adz/wedge, fork, bevel-side of fork. Different amounts of leverage and a spread offered by the different ends of the halligan. Use of the adz/pike on both left-side and right-side opening doors. What type of structures are likely to have inward-swinging or outward-swinging doors. Emphasize that Plan A may not work.....Plan B may not either! If you use gap-lines and/or set-lines ground onto your halligan, explain their function. Any local practices or guidelines you follow in your organization.
5 PRELIMINARIES
COMMANDS:
HIT
-
Hit
the
halligan
with
the
axe
one
/me
DRIVE IT - Keep hi3ng un/l I tell you to stop STOP - No more hits for now WEDGE - Hold the purchase with the axe / door wedge
In our classes, we like to start with the simple stuff, and get progressively more complex. For that reason, we usually begin with forcing an outward-swinging door using the fork-end of the halligan. Its a very intuitive evolution, and is easily understood.
2
Explain the reason for shocking an outward-swinging door (to batter the door, and possibly increase the gap between door and frame). Explain and demonstrate the GAPSETFORCE technique.
3
Explain and demonstrate proper communication and commands between the halligan-FF and the axe-FF. Use the rubber mallet to strike the halligan in place of a flat-head axe. Explain that the fork method will provide a 5:1 mechanical advantage and a maximum spread of about an inch.
Inside View
Explain the use of a door-wedge or the blade of the axe to hold the purchase while the halligan is removed and another side of the halligan is used. In our classes, the halligan-firefighter uses the command, WEDGE, to signal to the axefirefighter to wedge the door with the axe.
V E R T I C A L
HORIZONTAL
Demonstrate the process of bringing the fork in at a diagonal angle, with the bevel toward the door. Demonstrate flattening the angle of the bar once a gap has been established so that the fork-tips can travel past the door stop and through the seam between the door and frame. Allow participants to see the interior-view, and emphasize that the forktips should be locked on to the frame before attempting to force the door. Explain that the fork method will provide approximately 5:1 mechanical advantage, and a maximum spread of about an inch.
Explain and demonstrate gapping the door between door and door-stop.
2
Explain and demonstrate prying vertically with the adz to maximize leverage. Explain and demonstrate wedging the door with a door-wedge or axe. Explain and demonstrate setting the tool by locking the adz onto the interior frame of the door.
4
Explain and demonstrate the use of the pike to pry vertically to clear the door. This motion is often used when spread is a priority over leverage.
1
This method will provide a mechanical advantage of 5:1, and a spread of about 6 inches.
2
To the left, the pike is pictured beginning the gap by prying against the door-stop. This can be used as a method of initially gapping the door, but may not be suitable on all doors for fully forcing the door. Once enough spread has been created between door and frame, wedge the purchase with the axe or door-wedge and insert the pike behind the inside-portion of the frame. To the right, the pike is pictured locked onto the inside of the frame. This is a more secure fulcrum point with which to pry against. The pike method is more often used on right-side opening doors because gravity and body weight can be employed to the firefighters advantage.
22 - HAVE FUN!
Thanks for reading! We hope you and your crew has a good time training. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us. And thanks to Christopher Huston and the guys at FIRE TRAINING TOOLBOX.
SEARCH & DESTROY FIRE TRAINING, LLC SEAN J. WILSON & SCOTT A. GARDNER, LEAD INSTRUCTORS 5150 HAMPSHIRE DRIVE / SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN 48316 586-231-1478 SEARCHANDDESTROYFE@FE.COM WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SEARCHANDDESTROYFIRETRAINING
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