Forcible entry is the
methods or techniques
used by used firefighters
to gain access to a
structure or area where
access is locked, blocked,
or non-existent. Many
fireground activities
cannot begin until
forcible entry is
completed. Therefore,
the objective of forcible
entry is rapid and
efficient entry using the
best applicable
techniques at the best
point or points of entry.
F
ORCIBLE
E
NTRY
Definition and
Basic Objectives
Strategic Priorities
The forcible entry team should consider the location and removal of victims its top priority when choosing one entry point over another. Choose an opening that can put a handline between the victims and the fire.
Most victims will be found behind locked, inward swinging doors. Keep in mind, openings made by fire personnel can create dangerous, unwanted drafts that can cause fire to spread and
endanger victims and rescue personnel. Try to keep forced doors intact so they may be reclosed if conditions warrant. Most often, doors are a better point of entry than windows. Doors allow firefighters to enter at the lowest possible level, where heat, smoke and gases are above them.
Doors are bigger than windows, usually, making entry, rapid exit and victim removal easier. No matter how much stuff is packed into a place, there is always a path from at least one door to a victim’s location. This is not true of windows.
Next, choose a point of entry where a handline can isolate and confine the fire. The front doors of both a house and a warehouse can be relatively great distances from the fire’s location. Pick an entry point that separates the burned from the unburned. Think about the creation of unwanted drafts that may affect the fire’s growth rate and/or direction of travel, and use techniques that do not destroy the door’s integrity.
Make entry where rapid exit of firefighters is possible. The bigger the opening the better. Again, crawling across a threshold may be possible where climbing over a windowsill may not be. Open at least one other door, if possible, for emergency exit. This second opening can be forced, but left closed if conditions warrant.
VICTIM
DOOR WINDOW
Tactical
Considerations
Fire conditions on arrival will dictate what options are available to a forcible entry team. Where and how to open up will be based on many factors. In part, these include fire intensity, life hazard, crew experience, entry difficulty (based on time and effort) versus entry effectiveness, and entry operations versus vertical ventilation. Where there is little threat to life and property, (e.g., food on the stove), time can be taken to preserve the integrity of a door or window. Rapid, no-holds-barred entry becomes paramount when life and/or property are endangered by flame.
The ways that structures are secured varies from the very simple to the very complex. Different occupancy types use different security systems. A house is secured differently than a store, and a store differently than a warehouse. Each system of securing a structure is defeatable by using forcible entry methods developed for that system. The highly-skilled forcible entry team knows and understands the various security systems and uses the best techniques to defeat them. The forcible entry team must “tool up” properly for the job at hand. Through experience, training, and preplanning, the team learns which tools and techniques are best applied, according to the forcible entry problem and the overall condition on arrival.
Often, forcible entry doesn’t require force. Security in multi-story buildings usually doesn’t extend above street level, and a ladder to a balcony or open window accomplishes “entry.” Knox boxes and other limited access systems allow firefighters to bypass difficult and hi-tech security systems. And remember the cardinal rule of all forcible entry: TRY THE DOOR FIRST. It may be unlocked.
A front door lock is no longer a mere moral deterrent. Citizens barricade themselves behind ever stronger doors and bars. Most urban homes have a security gate on the front door, sometimes on the back. The first floor windows are barred and often do not have escape hardware. There are several basic tactics to consider when attacking these strongholds.
The weakest part of a security gate is the perforated metal sheeting that makes up the “screen” part of the door. If it is spot-welded to the door it can be knocked loose, and a firefighter can reach in and unlock the door. The screen can be easily sliced if it cannot be loosened, and a hand can reach in and work the lock and knob. This method will work only on a single cylinder lock, of course, but it is a quick
operation and worth the little effort it takes. Security gates can be pried, usually using two prying tools or a striking tool and a prying tool. The method used will depend on the forcible entry team and the conditions. Through-the-lock techniques can be exceptionally effective against home security gates, as can, of course, the rotary saw with metal cutting blade. When attacking the lock side of a security gate, consider using a plunge cut over a vee cut. The plunge cut will catch both the deadbolt and the latch with one cut, and do a cleaner job than a vee cut. When cutting the hinges, remember to cut the bottom hinge first. More control is kept over the door this way.
Externally mounted security gates and window bars can often be removed with sledge hammer blows to their mounting screws. The screws are stripped by driving them into the wood or masonry, and then the gate or bars can be knocked or pried away. Look for emergency release hardware on window bars. The room behind those bars is almost certainly a bedroom, and thus a top consideration for life hazard.
The increase in crime has had an adverse effect for firefighters forcing entry into commercial and/or industrial occupancies as well. Steel doors and door frames, rolldown doors over storefronts, and hardened steel padlocks with hidden hasps make entry slower and therefore more dangerous for the entry team. District knowledge through preplan and high level entry skills can counteract much of the current forcible entry problem.
Commercial glass and steel doors can be defeated several ways. Common thought holds these doors can never be pried without the glass breaking, but this is only partly true. A door or pair of doors that do not have a tight fit can be pried, if care is taken to direct the force in the direction the door(s) swing, and not inward, which will bend the frame and break the glass. Pulling the cylinder and picking the lock (through-the-lock) is extremely effective on glass and steel doors. No glass is broken, leaving a clean and safe entry, and the damage done to the door is restricted to one missing lock cylinder. Avoid breaking the glass if possible. Not only will there be glass everywhere, but the entry is restricted by the door’s pushbar, which is difficult to remove. The rotary saw can also be utilized on these doors to cut a way in.
Scissor gates can be found on businesses, warehouses, and industrial occupancies. They can cover any open expanse on a building that is not secured, such as display windows and glass doors on businesses, and warehouse and loading dock bays in industrial buildings. The usual problem with scissor gate forcible entry is a hasty attack that leads to a twisted or derailed gate. If the gate could be opened that morning by the occupant, it can be opened at 0300 by firefighters. The gates are usually locked shut with one or more padlocks or a chain-and-padlock combination. Remove the chain-and-padlocks with the appropriate techniques, (see below) and open the gate.
Make sure all the locking devices are removed before trying to open the gate. If held closed with a chain, cut the chain. At times, removing all the locking devices can be time-consuming because of their strength and number. At that time consider cutting them out of the problem. Scissor gates are made with relatively soft metal, and a rotary saw can cut the struts, to which the locking devices are attached, away from the rest of the gate. When a gate is held closed by
padlocks, it is sometimes possible to cut the softer metal hasp through which the padlock is fastened, and then open the gate. Make sure the gate has been secured in the open position to avoid accidental entrapment of personnel.
Recessed doors, e.g., doors in alcoves, limit the prying options of the forcible entry team. Consider the adz end technique for this problem. Cutting the lock with the rotary saw can be difficult here, too, when the lock and jam
are nearly flush with the alcove wall. An outboard mounted blade will get the blade closer to the jam, and make cutting easier. A saw with the blade mounted outboard makes cutting locks flush with the sidewalk on commercial rolldowns and scissorgates easier, as well.
Rolldown doors have become the crime defense of choice in recent years. The smallest sizes are raised and lowered by hand. Next are the type that are raised manually by a gear and chain system. When the chain is installed on the
exterior it is locked down or secured behind a metal cover. These security measures are easily defeated and the chain can be used to raise the door.
Automated rolldowns may have the drive unit mounted on the exterior wall within a metal cover. From this hangs a chain for manual operation of the door in power outages. Within the cover, and accessible through a small hatch or operable by a pull chain, is a clutch. Disengage the clutch and raise the door.
Most often, rolldowns are secured by stronger means. Pulling the cylinder and picking the lock works well when a rolldown is locked to the sidewalk with a swinging deadbolt mortise lock. The strongest padlocks made are being used extensively on rolldowns. These can be cut or sometimes sheared from their hasps, but usually the forcible entry team finds too many locks that are too strong to be removed in a timely manner.
The best option at this point is to cut the door with an inverted vee cut. Make sure to cut through the bottom channel of the door so if the door is raised later, no hose lines will have to be moved. Also consider cutting a rolldown when time due to life hazard is a factor. If the door is deformed by heat, or the operating mechanisms are inside, cut it.
Often times a series of rolldown doors is found upon arrival (e.g. warehouse loading docks). Unless fire conditions warrant, do not vee cut every door. Gain entry via one vee cut, then cut the locks on the others and open them in the normal way.
Padlocks have grown in strength and sophistication with the burgeoning crime industry in America. The different styles and strengths call for new techniques to accompany the “bolt cutter” solution. Padlocks are used in nearly every security situation from garage doors to the distilled water machine in front of the grocery store.
Case-hardened padlocks have a shackle and sometimes a body made of hardened steel. Depending on the thickness of the shackle, these cannot be cut with bolt-cutters and must be cut with the rotary saw. Check if the staple through which the lock is fastened is as strong as the lock.
Oftentimes it is not and can be attacked instead of the padlock. All L.A.U.S.D. grounds are secured with hardened padlocks and case-hardened chains. Fortunately, most engines carry keys to the schools in their district.
Often-seen now on commercial and industrial occupancies is the case-hardened hidden single shackle padlock. This lock can be dealt with several ways. The shackle can be severed by cutting through the face of the lock two-thirds of the way up from the keyway. If the lock is mounted on a substantial staple, a large pipe wrench can be used to rotate the lock and thus shear the pin. Finally, the lock can be cut out of the problem.
