Yes I agree with the ratio achievement of the halligan. But that not equal for everyone. A person with more body mass will make it loom easier. I seen in your videos it took several ugha dughas. Mass has an advantage.
Regarding what can be used for blocking (in place of wood) to increase spread: the logging industry makes extensive uses of plastic felling wedges that get hammed into chain saw cuts. They are cheap and tough, but designed to be cuttable (to avoid destroying tools) which also makes them easy to modify. They are also expected to be used up and replaced.
Awesome 👍 This trick Doesn't work very well when the door is well hung/tight fitted, or there is a seal/gasketting. Sometimes you can push on the door to give yourselves more of a gap, but it makes the deadbolt harder to slide in sure to the friction. Also you might run into the tape slipping off the deadbolt latch when pulling too hard. An extra wrap on the latch so the tape can tape onto itself and hold itself better.
Was able to pop a door super easily with your mini J-Tool the other day, so thank you for taking the time to teach that. I prefer to make my own tools if I can (I'm cheap like that), what would you recommend for a DIY Swipe Tool? Or is that one you recommend biting the bullet and buying.
Glad to hear the Mini-J-Tool worked for you. I originally tried cutting a plastic jug into a door shim/swipe tool, but it didn’t work as well… so I ended up purchasing them (from Firefighter Swipe Tool & Sparrows Lock Picks).
I’ve got something similar to the triblade, are you finding you’re having to gap most doors to allow the blade to do its thing? Also, are you ever having to put a good amount of up/down pressure on the locking mechanism with the tool? I see a lot of similar videos where they are even lightly hitting down on it.
I’d say half the time I have to gap the door, and half the time I don’t. I haven’t had to hit my modified framing square down… but I have had to increase the gap between the door & frame to take the dead latch out of play. I also noticed I had more luck with the modified framing square (MFS) than the tri-blade. Not sure why, but doors I couldn’t get with the tri-blade, I could get with the MFS.
Thank you! I’m waiting to hear if I’ve been hired by the FD…I am also 5’4” and seeing tips like this helps a lot as well as takes away any doubts about my small size! I know I’m strong enough to do the job but I may need to employ different techniques than the taller or heavier FF’s. Appreciate the video!
I would humbly ask you to consider a slight change to the order of life, fire, layout, based on the tool we use for this. Our TIC. Consider, L2F. Life, Layout, Fire. This runs in progression to how we should consider using our TIC. Life and layout are items that are located low to mid in the compartment we have access to. As life is often not readily apparent due to victim temp , location and the attempted equalization of ambient temps, we want to use the maximum pixel rate on our TIC. This means snapshot views while TIC is in high sensitivity mode. I am automatically observing furnishings and doorways during this low to mid scan. Looking higher for fire progression and thermal absorption of surroundings will cause my TIC to switch to low sensitivity mode and I will loose up to 50 percent of my pixel rate loosing some clarity of vision for my scan of life and layout. Minor difference for sure. Just something to consider. Great post as always, thanks for sharing.
I haven’t had any issues with my SCBA interfering with deployment. Other people have said they had issues with deployment. I recently had my webbing fall out the back/bottom of my coat stored like this during training (I didn’t expect that to happen!).
After 30 plus years of working on a rescue, I’ve learned that all of these techniques for dragging or using webbing may work in one place or another. No two victims have ever drug out the same. They are often wearing little to no clothes as they were caught sleeping. They are often slick as a greased pig because their body is under stress and they are sweating profusely. It seems like the average rule is that for every 100 lbs of weight, it correlates directly with what floor they are on…100 and below first floor, 200 second etc. basements start at 200 and go up based on landings…. Firefighters playing victims no matter how limp they try to be, still have a muscle rigidity a truly unconscious person will not have. Many webbing tricks that work great on the training ground fail in spectacular fashion when tried in real life. Always have a next try. Don’t forget the simplest thing, a bed sheet, a shower curtain, whatever is right there where you find them. Try the arm bar. If they tap out enroute… they can get themselves out. Keep training!!!!
Make it easier to work with. Consider two things, first, take the webbing to your local saddle shop or shoe repair and get the ends sewn together. The knot is what makes this the most difficult part to work. Second, consider 2” webbing. 2 inch is far easier to manage with gloves on and in blind environments. The 2” works very well simply rolled in your pocket with a tab sticking out. Due to its width and weight, it stays put very well and can be indexed with gloves on by just grabbing the 4” tab extended from the pocket.
Love your videos. The absolute only critique I have is using the forks bevel to door. While this does provide a minor increase in gap space, it also uses far more work to crawl the tool around the door stop. It also points the forks towards the door jamb. Training doors are quite robust as a matter of requirement. Many door jambs are much less robust. Driving the forks that direction can and will drive the forks into the jamb. No not always, but enough to make it more advantageous to use the fork’s bevel to jamb. It the door doesn’t fail at this point, you’ve generally created enough gap to transition to adz, which has far more strength anyway. Just a minor detail for conversation for some otherwise spot on videos.
If by swing latch you mean pivoting deadbolt… I would use other through the lock techniques. For example, pulling the lock cylinder, then manipulating the lock mechanism. And if that didn’t work, I would go to the rotary saw to cut both latch guard and deadbolt.
These entry vids offer a whole nother dimension to the first responder world that needs to be showcased. Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your adventures and expertise.
