Forcible Entry
Random Thoughts On…
Structural firefighting is best performed (hopefully) from inside the building. One of the first operations to be accomplished at any fire scene (after locating the fire) is entry. It’s just as important to size up entry into a structure as it is to make a sizeup for any other tactical operation.
Which way in? Normally, the front entrance, the one used by the occupants, should be our focus. Windows are a fragile, but poor alternative. If you were to jump into my 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom window, you’d get in easily enough, but you’d have a hell of a time getting out, even if there were no fire. Entrance doors will lead us, relatively unencumbered, through most of the occupied structure at the lowest entry point. The entrance door also brings us to a frame of reference — the hallway walls —for methodical search functions and, if needed, rapid and assured exit. It is also the path that will be chosen as an exit by people who may be trapped inside. Victims who become successful rescues are most often found in the pathway from where they were to the front door.
Which way does the door swing? That’s a question from all the basic books on firefighting. We should all know the architectural telltales —hinge locations, doorstops, recesses, etc.— but perhaps some additional rules of thumb are in order.
Which way do most of the locked doors we face as firefighters swing?
Inward? Correct!
The rear doors of commercial occupancies swing outward, and we should recognize that. I would like to take the “rule” a step further. Human life is almost always behind inwardswinging doors.
“Hold it! What about places of public assembly,” you say. “They are legislated to swing in the direction of public egress —outward.” Correct again. However, if a place of public assembly is occupied with human life, those same doors are legislated to be UNLOCKED!
As a matter of fact, outward-swinging doors should forecast trouble to the forcible entry person. And personal safety should be a watchword.
Which doors swing outward in your district? In private dwellings it’s the cellar. It’s also the closet. I know you’ll all say, “But we must search closets.” True! But we would like to know that it’s just that—a closet. Closets require gentle probing, not a firefighter plunging through the door to get caught in loose clothes, dropping shelves, ironing boards and the like.
In large hotels and residences, outward-swinging doors enclose janitorial and incinerator spaces. Worse, they also serve as access to elevator and other interior shafts.
In industrial and commercial highrise and other complex layouts, they not only forecast all of those things, but also allow entry to electrical closets that hold bare connections to enormous power supplies.
If visibility is at a premium and the door opens outward, get down on all fours and prepare for a surprise.
Is the door locked? I can hear the laughter now. As basic as this sounds, you can’t say it often enough. It’s embarrassing to be going through your entire bag of forcible entry tricks at a door that looks like a store for lock tumblers, only to have the engine person reach through your expert legs and open the door, just by using the knob.
At the last fire I had, we were faced with such a door in a Spanish grocery store in a high-crime area. We pulled all four cylinders and were about to perform our wizardry on the lock mechanism when the engine company personnel pushed open the door and put the fire out. How was I supposed to know the burglar didn’t have time to relock the door after throwing his fire bomb to mask the crime scene?
How do you keep control of your door? A piece of rope or vise-grip with dog chain attached can be affixed to the doorknob of an inward-swinging door and laid under a firefighter’s foot. Should the door “blow” open and the fire “blow” out into the public hall with “edges” on it, it’s nice to be able to gently reclose the door to protect civilians and members that may be located above the now extending fire.
Firefighters are quick to say that a six-foot pike pole or hook is used for that purpose. That’s fine if the fire lets you get back close enough to hook the now open door, and you still have to reach the knob with your (gloved?) hand to close it the final six inches.
Some of you must now be saying, “Gee, this is too basic.” Well, maybe you’re right, but basics are where it s at. They make or break an efficient operation. And besides, they’re fun to talk about.
