Brushing Up on Forcible Entry in Avalon

 

 

On March 13th and14th, 2010, the Avalon Fire Department hosted a Basic Forcible Entry Operations course.  Every member received eight hours of training in several disciplines of forcible entry.  Despite flooding, and gale-force winds, seventy-one firefighters from four states participated in the training.

 

New Jersey fire departments in attendance were: Avalon, East Vineland, Town Bank, Middle Township District #1, Ocean City, Stone Harbor #1, Burlington Township, Villas, Millville, West Wildwood, Mount Ephraim, Rio Grande, Bellplaine and Cape May Fire Departments.  Out of state departments included State College, PA; Raleigh, NC and Charlottesville, VA.

 

All members participated in a two-hour lecture and discussion that centered on safety, firefighter size-up and a review of forcible entry tools.  Also in the morning a 45-minute presentation was conducted that dissected every step and tool placement of conventional forcible entry.  Each member of the course then cycled through four rotations and ALL members received hands-on experience in the following tasks:

 

·        Conventional Forcible Entry (Inward Doors)

·        Conventional Forcible Entry (Outward Doors)

·        Forcing a door from the hinged-side

·        Defeating a padlock with a duck-bill lock breaker

·        Defeating lower quality “high-security” padlocks with a screwdriver

·        Methods of defeating slide-bolts and padlocks

·        Operating a power saw at various heights and saw orientations to simulate the removal of window bars

·        Operating a power saw to cut a hockey-puck type padlock

·         Operating a power saw to cut hinges

·        Pulling lock cylinders to perform through-the-lock forcible entry

·        Practice through-the-lock methods on over one hundred locks on display

 

A wide-variety of instructors with various department backgrounds was present.  Instructors Nate DeMarse, Kevin LeGacy and Chris Collier (FDNY), Kevin Grebinar (Hudson, NH), Andrew Brassard (Milton, Ontario) and Jeff Clayton (Brampton, Ontario) taught this course.

 

-Fire News photos by Robert Newkirk,
-Fire News story by Nate DeMarse
 

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Training is Ongoing in Demarest

 

 

Recently, Demarest Fire Department attended a flashover class at the Bergen County Fire Academy, in Mahwah; it was a great learning tool for some of the new members and a refresher for the veteran firefighters.

 

-Fire News photo by Chris Denton