The Ins and Outs of Forcible Entry

Forcible entry is one of the most common jobs for a truck company. Every day across America firefighters go to jobs with the first priority being to gain access. Many fire departments fail during recruit school to adequately prepare their firefighters when it comes to forcible entry. It is essential that truck company firefighters, as well as engine company firefighters in many departments, be proficient at forcible entry. Delayed forcible entry causes many problems including our two most important priorities: water on the seat of the fire and search. Forcible entry is a lacking skill in many areas of the country. Many firefighters rely on brute strength through methods such as the mule kick to get into houses, however such techniques will not always work at residential fires and will fail firefighters on the scene of a commercial fire. Firefighters need to be knowledgeable and proficient in use of their tools and doors/locks.
This class will cover the history of the halligan and where our present day halligans have come from, comparison of different brands of halligans, mechanical advantages, striking tips and body positioning, inward and outward swinging doors, drop bars, basic thru the lock techniques and uses, saw work, the 10% Search, and door size up. While a lecture only class, this class should serve as a building block to apply information to hands on training and the fireground. This class is the basics of residential and commercial forcible entry. Firefighters that come from strong, truck company centered departments may know much of this information, however many firefighters have been inadequately prepared to meet the challenges they will face. This class is an attempt to close the gap between the training textbooks and real world fire ground knowledge.