ON FIRE ❘ by MICHAEL N. CIAMPO
For young firefighters, it is very important to learn and understand the “whys” and “how comes” of tool operation and why the tool was created in a specific manner. Fire department tools were created for various uses or one specific use. Knowing only a minimal amount of material or not understanding why something is made a specific way can hurt you when you least expect it. This can be very true when we create homemade modifications to a tool and suddenly find out they hinder us when we’re performing our duties.
Sitting on the rig awaiting confirmation by the first-due units that the fire alarm was pulled maliciously while another box is being transmitted for a fire in your first-due area is dispatched can get your blood flowing. We were released and, while responding, communication between the officer and chauffeur had some information as to the following: “I’m not sure which way the other companies are responding into the scene.” Since we weren’t in our normal response pattern, we didn’t want any surprise intersection meetings.
Pulling into the block, we saw no smoke issuing from the building. People filing out of the building informed us something was going on. As we made our way into the structure, people told us smoke was coming from an apartment on the second floor. The problem with second-floor fires is that you really can’t get a layout of the apartment from the floor below in multiple dwellings because the lobby encompasses most of the first floor and the layout won’t mimic the floor above.
Since there was good visibility in the hallway, we pried downward on the top of the inward-opening door of the reported fire apartment. As the door flexed downward, the black and gray smoke began to slowly seep out of the crevice, tasting like a job and not a food on the stove call, and it wasn’t spiraling out under pressure. This told us the fire was most likely deeper into the apartment or the fire room’s door was closed inside the unit.
Informing the chief that we had a job, we also communicated to the engine that they had long hallways to assist them in flaking out their hoseline. Since it was a quick stretch to the fire floor, while the door was being forced, the engine officer attempted to enter the apartment above to get a layout. No one answered the door. Since the door being forced began to emit smoke into the hallway, he retreated down to the fire floor.
Forcing the door was difficult, and having two probationary firefighters as the forcible entry team was going to make this a “learn as you do” lesson. The apartment door was right next to the stairwell. When the team went to get into position to force the door, with one firefighter kneeling as the striking member with the ax, the first problem arose: the stairwell’s newel post. As the team attempted to swing the ax and strike the adz end of the halligan tool, the post was in the way and didn’t allow the tools to meet in this manner. Add that to the fact that the door had a piece of angle iron bolted to it from the top to the bottom for additional security, and we couldn’t revert to using the hydraulic forcible entry tool.
Since the adz couldn’t be struck because of tight quarters, the shoulders of the halligan tool were our next option to drive the fork behind the angle iron and between the door and frame. (Although many teach to pull off the angle iron, leaving it there provides another fulcrum, reduces the chances of being injured by a dangling piece of steel, and reduces the time needed to force the door.) The halligan tool shoulders were being hit with the top of the ax head in a slide hammer position as it ran along the halligan’s shaft. There wasn’t room for the shoulders to be struck with a swinging motion. When the slide hammer method is used, the ax rarely slides off the top of the shaft of the halligan and is supported while striking. The method can also be used from the underside, with a thrusting motion of the ax being thrown into the shoulder. Within a few seconds, we had our first purchase; although the tool slipped out on the first attempt to force the door, the members were encouraged to reset the tool deeper with the crouch of the forks meeting up with the door stop and get it on the next force, which they did.
The slide hammer motion and striking the halligan’s shoulders with the ax isn’t our normal way to drive the tool into position. However, when we encounter dead-end hallways, angular positioned doorways, the area beneath a brownstone’s front steps entrance, or a tight outside stairway into a basement, we may need to use this method. If your tool’s shaft is prewrapped with oxygen tube and wire and covered with grip tape or braided rope, hopefully, you can still hit the shoulders in a slide hammer or striking motion. Many times, the wrap is so high you’ll end up totally missing the shoulders when you attempt to hit them. Sure, wrap might help with grip with wet gloves, but you can hold onto the pike and adz when the shoulders are being struck. Plus, if you’re adding wrap, aren’t you creating friction between your gloves and the tool, which slows the tool down when you’re hitting it? The same is true if prewrapping tool handles that were meant to glide through your hands, such as an ax on a roof or punching perforations in drywall with a hook. Speed, efficiency, and knowledge of tools come with using them on drills and during incidents.
MICHAEL N. CIAMPO is a 33-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously, he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the lead instructor for the FDIC International Truck Essentials H.O.T. program. He wrote the Ladders and Ventilation chapters for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II (Fire Engineering, 2009) and the Bread and Butter Portable Ladders DVD and is featured in “Training Minutes” truck company videos on www.FireEngineering.com.
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