6 ms·

NYC Fire Department Forcible Entry Manual (2006) [pdf]

123 points by dfc 11y ago

honyock 11y ago
"Prior to forcing a door: The Forcible Entry Team should: TRY THE DOOR to determine 'IS THE DOOR LOCKED?'" Nice.
- chiph 11y ago
  But that's not as fun..
- JshWright 11y ago
  When my sister was in the fire academy, there was a nearby hotel slated to be demolished, so they used it for training. On one particular evolution, the task was "Search this whole floor for victims". The first door was locked, so they forced it (not an easy task with hotel doors designed to be reasonably secure), and then proceeded to break down every other door on the floor (20 minutes later, they're completely spent...). Turns out, the instructors had only locked the first door, and they hadn't bothered to check any of the others, just assuming they were also locked. Always, always, always try before you pry.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
jld89 11y ago
And finally, you should always TRY THE DOOR KNOB - “is the door open?
monkmartinez 11y ago
Am a firefighter... Always Try before you Pry. Have the Halligan and Axe in standby.
ludicast 11y ago
Interesting seeing this posted here. I've spent the past decade+ as a firefighter with the FDNY and this is always a go-to book (at least for monday-morning-quarterbacking how somebody did something). It's one of the few times a book does a good job at mirroring actual practice. We have a lot of other books on tools and procedures, but this one is more interesting to a hacker's mindset. Some notes: - trying the doorknob is indeed important advice. I think the ones I've forced have always been locked, but there are plenty of times I can't guarantee 100% that I checked the doorknob first. - always good to jiggle the door before you attack it to see just where the locks are locked on the inside. - the halligan tool is perfectly made, but the different ways of increasing leverage are always useful (like marrying it to another, or chocking the door with an axe (or wooden chocks) to maintain progress and you "work your way up"). - breaching a wall is sometimes an option. Sometimes a $1000 door has a $10 sheet of drywall right next to it. Only needed to do this a few times but makes you look like an animal when you do it. - no matter how hard a door is, the hydra-ram is almost always guaranteed to open it. but we usually use this as a last resort or for emergencies where you can't waste time "d&$*ing around". - never give up your tool. basically, if you are working to force a door, but it's taking some time and someone says "let me give a try", don't take the bait. If someone else pops your door for you, you will never live it down. - on my first run ever, a gentleman from my company showed me how to twist off padlocks like in the example on the bottom of p.122. An obvious trick, but worked well though my career and I got to show it to a bunch of people. Trivial example but I only mention it because he died last year of WTC-related-illness. - I always had a tool like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-10-in-Pro-Claw-Moulding-Puller-MP250G/202033612 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-10-in-Pro-Claw-Moulding-P... in my coat pocket (a little better model though). Worked great for lighter doors with minimal locks (staircases, internal offices, closets etc.)
- monkmartinez 11y ago
  It is interesting... I guess FDNY for east coasters and LA County/City for the west coasters are like the Google/Apple of the fire service world. You guys have a unique set of problems; scale, frequency of high risk operations, etc. Even if those problems don't apply to smaller departments, they (we) emulate your tactics/strategy and constantly compare what we are doing to FDNY/LACO Fire. It's not always applicable, but one can rest assured that the strategy or tactic will get us "in the ball park" or serve as a good starting point. The really interesting thing happening in the fire service is the NIST research, IMO. We have built some fire props based on the research and have changed our strategy significantly. Also, due to the thermodynamic studies NIST has provided we have changed the entire conversation regarding fire behaviour in west coast areas. Personally, I am always trying to find something relevant to hack on that would provide some value to the fire service...
  - mindcrime 11y ago
    I don't know if there's a West Coast / East Coast "thing" in firefighting or not, but there is definitely a marked difference from very urban departments (FDNY) to very rural departments (my department in rural NC). For one, we had little or no reason to training in high-rise firefighting tactics. We had no buildings more than 2 stories in our district and those were residential, with no standpipes or any of that stuff. OTOH, I guess most FDNY companies don't respond to a lot of brush fires, or have to deal with a lot of urban/wildland interface stuff. I'm sure there are some, depending on the exact location, but how much wildland / brush is there in downtown Manhattan? For us, brush fires, including very large brush fires (think thousands or tens of thousands of acres) were something we dealt with semi-regularly. There are differences in equipment as well. FDNY can usually rely on hydrants, whereas we had to do a lot of stuff with running tanker shuttles and drafting from dump tanks, drafting from static water sources (ponds, etc.). And even when we had hydrants they would probably be further away due to the difference in spacing (ours were every 1,000 feet where they exist, most major cities have a "hydrant on every corner" or "hydrant ever 500 feet" or something policy), which mean longer hose lays, more relay pumping, etc. I've sort of always seen the urban/rural difference as one of the main "branches" in the fire service (aside from paid vs volunteer).
dbarlett 11y ago
I enjoy reading http://www.vententersearch.com/ http://www.vententersearch.com/ for this sort of stuff.
- monkmartinez 11y ago
  Great site thanks.
code4tee 11y ago
Interesting read. The few times I've seen the FDNY I always wondered what that strange modified crowbar thing they carry around was (since I didn't see other Fire Departments using it). Now I know!
- JshWright 11y ago
  Are you referring to the halligan bar? I'd be very surprised to see a fire department that didn't carry them. The "set of irons" (the halligan plus a flat head axe) is about as standard a set of tools as you can get in the fire service. While there is some variation (I like to carry a Denver Tool[1] instead of the axe, as it's a slightly more effective striking tool), pretty much everyone carries the halligan. There really isn't a more versatile tool. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_tool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_tool
  - ludicast 11y ago
    The Halligan is vim. Has weird modes of usage, and takes some explaining. But it is stable, ever-present, and all-powerful.
    - JshWright 11y ago
      We need to start some sort of hacker/firefighter community. It seems there are more than a couple of us here.
      - mindcrime 11y ago
        Add one more, although my firefighting days are behind me now. I was a volunteer with Civietown and Supply VFD's in Brunswick County NC for basically the decade of the 90's. For a while I was an NCFRC certified Instructor II and could teach FFI/II, Incident Command and LP Gas Firefighting. Then I moved to the Triangle region and started my "real" career and found that I didn't have time for firefighting anymore. I miss it sometimes, but my life is complicated enough as it is, without trying to do that now. But still, I remember a few things and I still enjoy discussing fire safety issues.
apeconmyth 11y ago
I got to see the FDNY in action in my East Village apartment building a decade back after a neighbor's boyfriend set her place on fire. We locked our door and got it popped and it was amazing how quickly and efficiently they took out doors, windows, ceilings and floors as needed to control the fire and get the smoke out. They definitely knew their business and we were back in our 300 sq ft 6-floor walk-up in no time! Thanks once again, FDNY!
protomyth 11y ago
"Remember that when we leave the fire scene, the doors we destroy leave the occupants vulnerable to further loss from vandalism. The people we are sworn to serve rely on our good judgement." A healthy reminder for a lot of professions.
aredington 11y ago
One thing I really appreciated as an non-practicing observer was the frequent reminders to consider safety concerns, e.g. try a door knob before forcing it, take care with how padlocks may turn into projectiles, taking care that operating a chainsaw doesn't pose a threat to people inside a warehoused window, etc.
Theodores 11y ago
In the UK we do not have people walking about with guns and security is not as invincible as New York doors of 1980's vintage. Hence the UK police can gain entry to everywhere and anywhere with a warrant and the 'BIG KEY': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcer_(battering_ram) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcer_(battering_ram) I am sure UK firefighters have all of the other tools (including the equally nicely named 'Jaws of Life') for when their friends in the other emergency services need some help.
mindcrime 11y ago
Haven't read this yet, but here's the thing about forcible entry that might surprise a lot of people. Many doors are much easier to force than you might naively expect. Even with a deadbolt. Think about it like this... say the bolt extends into the jamb by a full inch. That means you only need to move the door frame by half an inch, and the door by half an inch, or some equivalent combo. But here's the rub... many doors aren't well installed or the frame has warped, etc. and the bolt does not extend into the frame by an inch. It might be half an inch or less. So, insert a decent sized prybar (halligan bar, or flat pry bar, whatever. Sometimes a big screwdriver will do) and pry... it doesn't take that much effort to get the door to flex a quarter of an inch and the frame a quarter an inch, and bob's yer uncle. This is really true on wooden doors/frames on residential construction. It's a little less true for something like a steel door set into a steel frame in some kind of commercial building, but there still tends to be a little bit of give which can be exploited.

123 points by dfc 11y ago

honyock 11y ago

"Prior to forcing a door: The Forcible Entry Team should: TRY THE DOOR to determine 'IS THE DOOR LOCKED?'" Nice.

chiph 11y ago
But that's not as fun..
JshWright 11y ago
When my sister was in the fire academy, there was a nearby hotel slated to be demolished, so they used it for training. On one particular evolution, the task was "Search this whole floor for victims". The first door was locked, so they forced it (not an easy task with hotel doors designed to be reasonably secure), and then proceeded to break down every other door on the floor (20 minutes later, they're completely spent...). Turns out, the instructors had only locked the first door, and they hadn't bothered to check any of the others, just assuming they were also locked. Always, always, always try before you pry.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

jld89 11y ago

And finally, you should always TRY THE DOOR KNOB - “is the door open?

monkmartinez 11y ago

Am a firefighter... Always Try before you Pry. Have the Halligan and Axe in standby.

ludicast 11y ago

Interesting seeing this posted here. I've spent the past decade+ as a firefighter with the FDNY and this is always a go-to book (at least for monday-morning-quarterbacking how somebody did something). It's one of the few times a book does a good job at mirroring actual practice. We have a lot of other books on tools and procedures, but this one is more interesting to a hacker's mindset. Some notes: - trying the doorknob is indeed important advice. I think the ones I've forced have always been locked, but there are plenty of times I can't guarantee 100% that I checked the doorknob first. - always good to jiggle the door before you attack it to see just where the locks are locked on the inside. - the halligan tool is perfectly made, but the different ways of increasing leverage are always useful (like marrying it to another, or chocking the door with an axe (or wooden chocks) to maintain progress and you "work your way up"). - breaching a wall is sometimes an option. Sometimes a $1000 door has a $10 sheet of drywall right next to it. Only needed to do this a few times but makes you look like an animal when you do it. - no matter how hard a door is, the hydra-ram is almost always guaranteed to open it. but we usually use this as a last resort or for emergencies where you can't waste time "d&$*ing around". - never give up your tool. basically, if you are working to force a door, but it's taking some time and someone says "let me give a try", don't take the bait. If someone else pops your door for you, you will never live it down. - on my first run ever, a gentleman from my company showed me how to twist off padlocks like in the example on the bottom of p.122. An obvious trick, but worked well though my career and I got to show it to a bunch of people. Trivial example but I only mention it because he died last year of WTC-related-illness. - I always had a tool like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-10-in-Pro-Claw-Moulding-Puller-MP250G/202033612 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-10-in-Pro-Claw-Moulding-P... in my coat pocket (a little better model though). Worked great for lighter doors with minimal locks (staircases, internal offices, closets etc.)

monkmartinez 11y ago
It is interesting... I guess FDNY for east coasters and LA County/City for the west coasters are like the Google/Apple of the fire service world. You guys have a unique set of problems; scale, frequency of high risk operations, etc. Even if those problems don't apply to smaller departments, they (we) emulate your tactics/strategy and constantly compare what we are doing to FDNY/LACO Fire. It's not always applicable, but one can rest assured that the strategy or tactic will get us "in the ball park" or serve as a good starting point. The really interesting thing happening in the fire service is the NIST research, IMO. We have built some fire props based on the research and have changed our strategy significantly. Also, due to the thermodynamic studies NIST has provided we have changed the entire conversation regarding fire behaviour in west coast areas. Personally, I am always trying to find something relevant to hack on that would provide some value to the fire service...
- mindcrime 11y ago
  I don't know if there's a West Coast / East Coast "thing" in firefighting or not, but there is definitely a marked difference from very urban departments (FDNY) to very rural departments (my department in rural NC). For one, we had little or no reason to training in high-rise firefighting tactics. We had no buildings more than 2 stories in our district and those were residential, with no standpipes or any of that stuff. OTOH, I guess most FDNY companies don't respond to a lot of brush fires, or have to deal with a lot of urban/wildland interface stuff. I'm sure there are some, depending on the exact location, but how much wildland / brush is there in downtown Manhattan? For us, brush fires, including very large brush fires (think thousands or tens of thousands of acres) were something we dealt with semi-regularly. There are differences in equipment as well. FDNY can usually rely on hydrants, whereas we had to do a lot of stuff with running tanker shuttles and drafting from dump tanks, drafting from static water sources (ponds, etc.). And even when we had hydrants they would probably be further away due to the difference in spacing (ours were every 1,000 feet where they exist, most major cities have a "hydrant on every corner" or "hydrant ever 500 feet" or something policy), which mean longer hose lays, more relay pumping, etc. I've sort of always seen the urban/rural difference as one of the main "branches" in the fire service (aside from paid vs volunteer).

dbarlett 11y ago

I enjoy reading http://www.vententersearch.com/ http://www.vententersearch.com/ for this sort of stuff.

monkmartinez 11y ago
Great site thanks.

code4tee 11y ago

Interesting read. The few times I've seen the FDNY I always wondered what that strange modified crowbar thing they carry around was (since I didn't see other Fire Departments using it). Now I know!

JshWright 11y ago
Are you referring to the halligan bar? I'd be very surprised to see a fire department that didn't carry them. The "set of irons" (the halligan plus a flat head axe) is about as standard a set of tools as you can get in the fire service. While there is some variation (I like to carry a Denver Tool[1] instead of the axe, as it's a slightly more effective striking tool), pretty much everyone carries the halligan. There really isn't a more versatile tool. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_tool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_tool
- ludicast 11y ago
  The Halligan is vim. Has weird modes of usage, and takes some explaining. But it is stable, ever-present, and all-powerful.
  - JshWright 11y ago
    We need to start some sort of hacker/firefighter community. It seems there are more than a couple of us here.
    - mindcrime 11y ago
      Add one more, although my firefighting days are behind me now. I was a volunteer with Civietown and Supply VFD's in Brunswick County NC for basically the decade of the 90's. For a while I was an NCFRC certified Instructor II and could teach FFI/II, Incident Command and LP Gas Firefighting. Then I moved to the Triangle region and started my "real" career and found that I didn't have time for firefighting anymore. I miss it sometimes, but my life is complicated enough as it is, without trying to do that now. But still, I remember a few things and I still enjoy discussing fire safety issues.

apeconmyth 11y ago

I got to see the FDNY in action in my East Village apartment building a decade back after a neighbor's boyfriend set her place on fire. We locked our door and got it popped and it was amazing how quickly and efficiently they took out doors, windows, ceilings and floors as needed to control the fire and get the smoke out. They definitely knew their business and we were back in our 300 sq ft 6-floor walk-up in no time! Thanks once again, FDNY!

protomyth 11y ago

"Remember that when we leave the fire scene, the doors we destroy leave the occupants vulnerable to further loss from vandalism. The people we are sworn to serve rely on our good judgement." A healthy reminder for a lot of professions.

aredington 11y ago

One thing I really appreciated as an non-practicing observer was the frequent reminders to consider safety concerns, e.g. try a door knob before forcing it, take care with how padlocks may turn into projectiles, taking care that operating a chainsaw doesn't pose a threat to people inside a warehoused window, etc.

Theodores 11y ago

In the UK we do not have people walking about with guns and security is not as invincible as New York doors of 1980's vintage. Hence the UK police can gain entry to everywhere and anywhere with a warrant and the 'BIG KEY': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcer_(battering_ram) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcer_(battering_ram) I am sure UK firefighters have all of the other tools (including the equally nicely named 'Jaws of Life') for when their friends in the other emergency services need some help.

mindcrime 11y ago

Haven't read this yet, but here's the thing about forcible entry that might surprise a lot of people. Many doors are much easier to force than you might naively expect. Even with a deadbolt. Think about it like this... say the bolt extends into the jamb by a full inch. That means you only need to move the door frame by half an inch, and the door by half an inch, or some equivalent combo. But here's the rub... many doors aren't well installed or the frame has warped, etc. and the bolt does not extend into the frame by an inch. It might be half an inch or less. So, insert a decent sized prybar (halligan bar, or flat pry bar, whatever. Sometimes a big screwdriver will do) and pry... it doesn't take that much effort to get the door to flex a quarter of an inch and the frame a quarter an inch, and bob's yer uncle. This is really true on wooden doors/frames on residential construction. It's a little less true for something like a steel door set into a steel frame in some kind of commercial building, but there still tends to be a little bit of give which can be exploited.