Door Size Up #1

Door Size Up #2

Door Size Up #3

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Door Size Up #5

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Door Size Up #9

Door Size Up #10

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Door Size Up #12

Door Size Up #13

Here is an old one, where we break down the differences in quality made Halligans that are designed for work, and other bars that are sold to make money without function in mind. Make sure you know the difference before your next purchases.
Halligan Bars…They are not the same. 

Here we are breaking down the basics and the noticeable differences between mortise and rim cylinders. The more we know about their function, the easier it is for us to operate them when the time comes to go through the lock. Take the time now, to make this operation only a few seconds when it counts.
Mortise Cylinders V.S Rim Cylinders

Halligans will do the job straight from the factory, but are they at their best? Absolutely not. This will guide you through the steps to take your Halligan from a sloppy high school football player and turn it into a well tuned Super Bowl champion. Make sure your bar is ready for game day.   Fine Tuning Your Halligan

The Truckies version of the great nozzle debate, which way do you prefer to set your Halligan when forcing inward swinging doors? Neither way is wrong, as long as you know the strengths and weaknesses of each.                                                                        Bevel To The Door V.S Bevel To The Jamb

Here is the specs that we have found to create the most spot on set of modified channelocks we can come up with. If your ready to make a pair for yourself, check out this article for a step by step guide to walk you through it.  Thru The Lock Pliers (Modified Channelocks)

This article talks about an experience that backs up everything we have ever spoke about regarding real halligans v.s their cheaper made counter parts. Don’t get caught in the fire service gimmicks! Imitation Halligans, A Setup For Failure.

A short simple article covering a great street proven way to clear your flooded saw. This is basic saw 101 information, but it can make or break your whole operation when it counts. Make sure you know how to field clear your saw.  Clearing A Flooded Saw

I hear over and over again, “Oh, this one has a drops bar, we would  have to wait for the saws”, well we are here to say the Irons are a powerful tool, and we should be taught solid tactics with hands tools and how to overcome everything possible with the Irons before we ever wait for any mechanical tool. The better you are with the Irons, the better you will be with the saws. Are you ready to handle anything with your Irons?  Tonights Matchup…Irons V.S Carriage Bolts.

As you can see by the articles, we Love a good set of Irons!!

Engine 7, Ladder 10 , BN10 & M-2

Here is a link to Philly Fire News that has an informative new interview regarding the fire and the rescue. http://phillyfirenews.com/content/firewire/detail/6703.php

I came across this great handbook from 1945, it has been fascinating to read and to reassure myself as much as we have changed, our basics have stayed so much the same. I am going to make a few different posts detailing some of the chapters out of this book. Everything from our mission and responsibilities as a firefighter to what early day versions of “combat ready” apparatus looked like.

Here is the very first page, word for word,  out of book # 5 called Practical Firemanship

Wow, talk about hitting the nail on the head. I needed this, sometimes it feels like we have so many other responsibilities we need to be good at that all I see is people training on everything but our true core basics. This book does a better job breaking down what is important than I ever could. What is great about this paragraph is it covers some great characteristics, expectations, and mentality in an easy to understand way. I want to break down parts of it and put a more modern spin on what I believe they are saying. I’ll respond in blue.

PRELIMINARY

“No two fires are alike,” is an old and very true Fire Service saying, and therefore technical knowledge must be backed up by intelligence and the ability to grasp the fundamentals of a situation, to initiate a plan of action and to improvise on the spur of the moment.
It has obviously been around for a while, we have all heard it, “No two fires are alike”  and I like their spin on this. They make the point that if we expect that each fire can be handled by a set guidelines out of a book, or technical knowledge that has been read, we are in for a world of hurt. We must use our heads and common sense to come up with a solution to the problem and get the job done. Not only get the job done, but in times do it in a way that we have never seen or been trained on before using tools in a creative fashion. They are asking for people that can solve problems with what they have in hand. 

The fireman must be physically fit, for work at a fire will almost always involve great physical exertion.
Guys are not making this stuff up today, they are just improving on it and stressing its importance. 
He must be courageous and yet be calm, for on these qualities will depend his reactions in an emergency. 
 These are some of the best qualities you can find in a firefighter, think of some of the best you know and work around. Ill bet their calm, and to me one of the best ways to judge courage is how calm someone remains when things are real bad.
He must be patient, for often he will need patience when dealing with persons whose property is involved or threatened by fire and who are in a state of considerable mental distress. He must have initiative and yet possess the will to keep going for long periods of times under adverse conditions.
Patience and staying calm go very hand in hand. The second part is a very formal way of saying they should be tough and not whining about when it is their turn to go get water or leave the fire.
He must cultivate his powers of observation to the utmost and must also possess an enquiring mind.
Attention to detail and being able to recognize what is going on when you arrive instead of becoming tunneled in on the problem. Almost every modern day tool and tactic have come from those among us with enquiring minds and the will to make things better.
He must have a keen sense of discipline, for unless he himself is able to obey orders without question he cannot expect others to carry out his orders.
The greatest leaders I have ever worked for are comfortable enough in their own skills and confident enough in their choices that they can have the humility to let the people who work under them question and solve problems on our own, all while having a mutual understanding that when they do give an order we would follow it without hesitation.
Finally he must never forget that as a member of the Fire Service he is a servant of the public, and that it is to him that the public turns in an emergency. His duty may be summed up as, firstly to save lives, secondly, to prevent the destruction of property by fire and, thirdly, to render humanitarian services.
What a great line, they refer back to the bottom line that we are in a business of service to others. How about how they summed up our duty, we have heard that in about every fire text book on the market. However I like the way they word it here better than the modern day Life Safety, Incident Stabilization,  Property Conservation. It brings a more personal meaning to our mission.
The fireman who wishes to progress in his profession should study every outbreak which he has the good fortune to attend and endeavor to learn something from it. Thus, after a few years, he will have built up a store of practical knowledge which will equip him for dealing with most of the problems which come his way.  
This is one of my favorites, even in 1945 they are talking about the importance of the person who treats this as a trade and not as a day to sit and gather a paycheck. 25 years can be experience that is only half of its true potential if you did just the minimum to make it through. The true craftsman takes every possible opportunity that they can learn from and they apply to their next challenge. They are hard on themselves when something goes wrong, but then they take what they learned and apply it to the next fire. This is how you store practical knowledge, by messing up, and than making sure you can’t mess up in the same way again.

This is just the very first page of this book, I have found a lot of other topics and chapters that I will share on here over time. I always love to get back tot he basics.

Masonry construction

Metal Frame and jamb

Outward swinging metal door

Primary lock has been covered by a plate and latch guard.  The lack of a keyway on the exterior could indicate that the owners only want traffic through that door from the interior and don’t want anyone using it as an entrance or it could mean that the locking mechanism has been removed and replaced with something else.

The carriage bolt pattern suggests an additional security device has been added. This pattern is unique because we see two vertical rows of deadbolts with three bolts in each row.  The bottom deadbolts in each row appears to have been removed.

When we look at the backside of the door we see what we are up against.  The key-in-knob lock has been removed and replaced with panic hardware.  The latch guard on the exterior of the door leads some people to believe that there is a key-in-knob or deadbolt as the primary locking mechanism.  In this case it turns out to be a false indicator and most likely was left on the door after the panic hardware was installed.  As we predicted, the carriage bolt pattern seen from the exterior holds the brackets for the drop bar in place.  The bottom of each vertical row is not a factor in the drop bar assembly.  It was originally the bottom bolts for an old drop bar assembly and was removed when the panic hardware was installed.

There are several interesting points about this drop bar assembly that are worth mentioning.  First and foremost this drop bar is incredibly stout.  A 4×4 that extends 6”-8”  beyond the frame against the wall will add resistance to our forcible entry operation.  Secondly, the brackets used to hold the drop bar are 1/4” steel.  Very strong mounts like these will increase the resistance during conventional forcible entry operations.  It’s worth noting the padlock on the bracket closest to the lock side of the door.  This is in place to prevent someone from cutting a hole in the door, reaching in and lifting the drop bar out of the brackets.  This shouldn’t be a factor in our forcible entry operation on this door.  Lastly we look at the carriage bolts that attach the bracket to the door. These are 3/8” carriage bolts that are bolted to the brackets on the backside of the door.  We’ve stated many times that the most advantageous part of using the probar is that it will expose the weakest part of the locking mechanism.  Even though this is a solidly built drop bar assembly, the weak point is going to be the carriage bolts.  Try conventional first.  If you meet resistance from the drop bar, drive the carriage bolts through closest to the lock side.  Many times this will cause the drop bar and mount to fall out of place and we can force the rest of the door conventionally.  A second option would be to attack this door with a power saw also defeating the bolts which will cause the mount to be defeated. Either way, attack the lock side bolts first for the sake of efficiency, many times this will cause the bar to become ineffective allowing us to go back to conventional and finish the job, if not we will work the hinge side bolts.

- Irons and Ladders

We are the second half of the show and start around the 38 minute mark if you would like to fast forward.

Fire Engineering Radio Show Episode 215

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