Breaking and Entering

There are a lot of times and a lot of reasons why we in the fire service might have to force entry into a building, vehicle, or what-have-you. We have a variety of tools to accomplish this, from simply kicking down a door, to using the 'irons' or haligan/axe combo, taking a circular saw to a roll up door, or using specialized auto tools to get into a locked car without damaging it.

For the most part we try to do as little damage as possible unless it is an absolute emergency. My favorite trick for avoiding damage was one my captain pulled out of his mental toolbox a little while back.

We were called to a house where the resident had locked herself out with her child still inside. Normally, we try to get in through a window or other entry point before we start destroying things, but there was no way into this place. We knew we were going to have to force the front door. This of course is usually quite destructive and costly no matter how well you do it. However, my captain figured out a great way to get in with the most minimal amount of damage. We took our reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade and simply cut off the doorknob. This way we only had to use pliers to turn the inner mechanism and open the door (house thieves, please disregard the preceeding instructions).

The homeowner now only had to replace and re-key her doorknob instead of replacing an entire front door. It worked great.


The golden rule in all forcible entry, though, is 'Try Before You Pry'. That is, always try to open a door or find another way in before you resort to forcing anything.

Sometimes you need to try twice.

For example, I worked with a different captain and we responded to a report of an unknown medical. When we arrived on scene the captain went to the front door and tried it, only to find that it was locked. He radioed dispatch to see if they could call back the RP (reporting party) to let them know we were there and to let us in. The ambulance pulled up and I went around to the back of the house to look for another way in. I found that the sliding glass door to the backyard was unlocked. I went and got my captain and he followed me around to the back and we entered in through the slider. We moved through the kitchen to the living room where we ran into our firefighter and the ambulance crew. My surprised captain asked how they got in, to which they responded, "The door was unlocked".
So, maybe we need to revise our rule to Try Before You Pry And Then Try Again. Or, to quote my abashed and colorful captain, "Open the door with your man-hand like the firefighter did and not with your pussy-hand like the captain."

Of course, it turns out that our potential patient had decided to just drive himself on to the hospital. I guess he didn't want to wait the full 3-4 minutes it took us to get there. He was very fortunate that the sliding door was unlocked or he would have come home to a lot of damage and no one to blame but himself. If you call 9-1-1 and then leave, do us all a favor and call back to inform the dispatchers. It could save us all a whole lot of trouble.