
NYC Fire Department Forcible Entry Manual (2006) [pdf] - dfc
http://www.brothersinbattlellc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/fdny_fe.pdf
======
ludicast
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-P...](http://www.homedepot.com/p/Estwing-10-in-Pro-Claw-
Moulding-Puller-MP250G/202033612) in my coat pocket (a little better model
though). Worked great for lighter doors with minimal locks (staircases,
internal offices, closets etc.)

~~~
gist
> \- 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.

So macho! I wonder if you could expand on that as far as the culture in being
a firefighter a bit. The only thing I know about this is obviously what I see
on TV and in movies. I suspect that it's actually beneficial rather than
detrimental to the necessary camaraderie in the group.

~~~
monkmartinez
Firefighter culture/behaviour, at least on my department, is very complicated.
It often resembles toddlers fighting for toys in a sandbox and I mean it...
calling us Toddlers is being nice. Literally 2 minutes later it can resemble
team-work that would make General Patton proud. I do not watch firefighter
shows or movies as a general rule, so I can not comment if they mirror
reality.

I don't think I could write about fire service culture in a comment on HN that
would satisfy myself or my brothers and sisters in the service. It is just too
complicated, at least from my perspective.

The example he gave is day one stuff. Never give up washing the dishes, never
give up the nozzle, never give up rolling hose, never give up tools, and so
on... _especially_ if you are the junior guy/gal. Seniority plays a big role
in my department.

~~~
giardini
"...never give up rolling hose, never give up tools, ..."

This certainly provides insight into the deaths of 27 wildland firefighters
who died disregarding orders to drop their heavy tools (so they could outrun a
wildfire):

"Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies" by Karl Weick at
[http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/gregory.gull/MBA8510.htm...](http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/gregory.gull/MBA8510.html/DropTools_Weick.htm)

~~~
ludicast
That is fascinating, thanks. There definitely is point where the primary life
hazard is us and we fail to realize it sometimes.

Reminds me of the speech from The Edge. "Most people in the wilderness die of
shame ... instead of thinking".

That said, all fatal fire reports have one thing in common. All the people who
read them think "I have no clue what I would have done if that was me".

~~~
JshWright
That's what intelligent, self-aware people think (on good days).

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

Nice.

~~~
JshWright
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.

------
apeconmyth
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!

------
dbarlett
I enjoy reading
[http://www.vententersearch.com/](http://www.vententersearch.com/) for this
sort of stuff.

~~~
monkmartinez
Great site thanks.

------
protomyth
"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.

------
monkmartinez
Am a firefighter...

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

------
mindcrime
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.

------
Theodores
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.

------
aredington
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.

------
code4tee
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
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
The Halligan is vim. Has weird modes of usage, and takes some explaining. But
it is stable, ever-present, and all-powerful.

~~~
JshWright
We need to start some sort of hacker/firefighter community. It seems there are
more than a couple of us here.

~~~
mindcrime
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.

------
jld89
And finally, you should always TRY THE DOOR KNOB \- “is the door open?

