Forcible entry: doors, locks, Halligans and saws

A shove knife pushes back a spring latch at a single door's edge and is too short and flat to trip a panic bar.

The K-tool grips and pulls a lock cylinder; it cannot reach a panic bar through a door gap.

The A-tool is also a cylinder-pulling tool, so it works on the lock, not on the bar behind the doors.

The J-tool is a bent wire tool shaped to pass between double doors and hook or push the exit device's bar.

Fire and prying affect the frame whether or not the door stays on; warping is not the concern.

Investigators look at the lock and frame either way; keeping the door hung has nothing to do with evidence.

A door still on its hinges can be shut to limit air to the fire and to protect crews or a refuge behind it.

Securing the property is a benefit after the fire, not the reason the door matters during operations.

Low and to the side keeps the firefighter out of the path of heat and fire that can roll out when the door opens.

Standing in the doorway puts the firefighter directly in the path of heat and fire that can roll out.

Throwing the door wide adds air to the fire with no control, and entering without checking conditions skips size-up.

Taking a door off its hinges is slow and is not how a door with fire behind it is opened; the firefighter stays low and to the side.

The J-tool is not shaped to turn the cam or tailpiece left exposed by a pulled cylinder.

With the cylinder out, the key tool goes into the hole and turns the cam or tailpiece to slide the bolt back.

A shove knife slips a spring latch from the edge of the door; it does not work through the cylinder hole.

A duck-billed lock breaker is driven into a padlock shackle; it plays no part in through-the-lock work.

The axle is rolled up inside the hood at the top, out of reach, and cutting it would drop the curtain.

Cutting along one slat at the bottom leaves the rest of the curtain hanging in place, so there is still no opening.

One straight cut only splits the slats and leaves nothing that can be folded out of the way.

An inverted-V (tepee) cut through the curtain leaves a flap that folds up and opens a hole big enough to enter.

Exposed hinge pins mark a door that swings out toward the firefighter, which reverses the size-up.

Hinges sit on the side toward which the door swings, so a door that opens away from the firefighter shows no hinges on the outside.

Panic hardware is mounted on the inside of exit doors that open outward, so it cannot be seen from the outside.

A lock is always on the latch edge, opposite the hinges, whichever way the door swings.

"Try before you pry": an unlocked door saves time and prevents needless damage.

Breaking glass adds an uncontrolled opening that can feed the fire before the attack line is ready.

Pulling the cylinder is a forcing method, used only after the door has been found locked.

A hinge-side attack is a fallback for a door that resists the lock side, not the first step.

Tape covers cracks and holds moisture against the wood, so a weakened handle goes unnoticed.

Paint can hide a split in the handle, which then fails under a heavy pry or strike.

Light sanding removes splinters and boiled linseed oil keeps the wood from drying out while any crack stays visible.

A varnished handle becomes slick in gloved, wet hands and can mask damage in the wood.

A power grinder is the faster method, which is exactly why crews are tempted to use it.

Marking paint on the head is cosmetic and can be redone, so it does not drive the choice of sharpening method.

Grinding heats the edge until it loses its temper, leaving soft steel that dulls and chips; a hand file keeps the edge cool.

An axe blade is meant to be sharp, so sharpness is not the hazard; the damage from a grinder comes from heat.

Sanding takes metal off the fork and adz and wears down their profile, and wax is not the protective coat used on tool steel.

A thin film of oil keeps bare steel on the forks and adz from rusting while leaving the grip surfaces usable.

Clean bare steel still rusts once moisture from the fireground or the apparatus bay reaches it; skipping the protective coat is the common shortcut.

Paint flakes off working edges and can cover a crack in the steel, so it is kept off unpainted surfaces of a forcible entry tool.

Nesting the axe and Halligan keeps a narrow profile, leaves a hand free, and keeps the tools from snagging the hoseline.

Carrying tools crosswise widens the firefighter's profile in a tight hallway and offers no real protection to the regulator.

Tools left at the door are not with the firefighter when a door or wall has to be forced deeper inside.

A swinging tool can strike the hose crew or a victim; probing is done deliberately, not by carrying tools loose.

Twisting while pushing is the motion most likely to injure the spine, especially with the weight of an SCBA.

A staggered stance gives balance under the SCBA, and driving with the legs while the back stays straight protects the lower back.

Bending forward with the tool overhead puts the force on the back and arms, the classic setup for a back strain.

A narrow stance and an arm's-length tool lose both balance and leverage and load the shoulders.

Ramming wrecks the door and frame for a call with no life hazard; that speed is for a fire or a trapped occupant.

Saw work destroys the frame and takes longer than working the lock; it is for doors that resist other methods.

A large display window is costly to replace and leaves the store wide open, with nothing gained over opening the lock.

With no fire and no one inside, there is time to open the lock itself, which leaves the door and frame undamaged and the store securable.

Striking tools such as a flat-head axe or maul deliver the blows; the fork is the end that receives them when it is driven into a gap.

Nothing on the fork is shaped to engage or turn a lock mechanism.

Cutting is done with axes, saws and bolt cutters; the fork has no edge meant to cut through material.

The tapered, split fork is driven into a gap and used as a lever, which places it among the prying ends of the Halligan.

Polycarbonate glazing flexes instead of shattering and usually needs a saw to open.

Ordinary plate glass breaks into large, sharp shards that can slide down a tool toward the firefighter.

Tempered glass is heat-treated so that it breaks all at once into small cube-like pieces.

Laminated glass has a plastic layer, so it cracks but stays in one sheet and has to be cut out.

The fork is set in the gap just above or below the lock, then the bar is pushed toward the door to spring it off the stop.

Punching the center of the panel does nothing to the bolt; force has to be applied where the lock holds the door.

Prying at the bottom lifts the door against its hinges instead of pulling the bolt clear of the strike.

Prying the knob up tears off the handle but leaves the bolt seated in the strike.

A ram is built to drive doors and walls; it cannot get a solid hit on a hanging padlock.

Light bolt cutters only work on soft shackles; hardened steel dulls or chips their jaws.

Swinging an axe at a hardened lock body glances off and chips the steel without opening the shackle.

A metal-cutting blade cuts through a hardened shackle or body that hand tools cannot break.

A clamp on the track under a roller physically blocks the door from rolling down if the springs or opener fail.

Heat can weaken or break the counterbalance springs, and a door that seemed to stay up can drop without warning.

The opener can be triggered by a wall button or a fire-damaged circuit and drive the door closed on the crew.

A chock under the bottom edge does nothing once the door is raised overhead; chocks hold swinging doors open.