January 2022

Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your continued support and dedication to the craft. We are going to continue with skills and add in additional content and some webinars.

We are dedicated this year to offer additional instructors and new materials to the membership to keep everyone engaged and learning. I hope you all find this valuable and worth your time.

This month we are going to be discussing traditional forcible entry. Gaining entry is a critical task in our ability to properly mitigate the issue. We can approach forcible entry in various methods to accomplish the task. First, our traditional method of forcible entry is focused on the axe and a halligan. We often think of forcible entry as a brut strength task, but this is far from the truth. We often see people who think they can muscle their way through a door without success but then someone with proper technique will accomplish the task quicker.

Traditional forcible entry is a game of leverage. We need to understand this to be successful. In addition, if we are able to properly use our technique and tools, we will be able to force doors without much damage, which in the end is what we want. The become critical when forcing a door for a fire alarm or a medical alarm. Busting down doors is not what we do because anyone can do that. This is a craft that takes practice and time.

In the videos to follow, you will see our approach to forcible entry. We highly focus on the adz end, as that provides you the most leverage. There will be two videos below on forcible entry. First is an explanation of the halligan and door size up with basic commands. Second, will be techniques for inward vs outward swinging doors.

The document fo this month is the FDNY Forcible Entry Manual. This manual is very lengthy but provides great information on everything forcible entry including other methods, which we will cover next month. Try to cover chapter 1-6 for a foundation of forcible entry. Remember, everyone has a different approach to forcible entry. the FDNY seems to favor a fork-focused approach. As already stated, I prefer an adz-focused approach. The best way to gain proficiency is to get the tools in your hands and practice.

Please start this month with the FDNY manual and the foundations video. From there we will dive into the skill of forcible entry.

FDNY Forcible Entry manual Chapter 1-6

Forcible Entry Video: Foundations

Forcible Entry Video: Traditional FE

Leadership: No Bullsh*t Leadership

Bonus Content!

In the coming weeks, we will be releasing our Hose Deployment Manual and be recording The First Line Webinar, exclusive for our members.